Starring: Tom Blyth, Peter Dinklage, Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, Burn Gorman, Fionnula Flanagan
Leader: Francis Lawrence
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Movie Review ( Photo Credit – IMDb )
Advantages: The ‘songbirds’ from this title add musical relief to the chaos and confusion that is taking place in other departments.
Disadvantages: It is burdened with the hopes and expectations attached to the ‘Hunger Games’ franchise in any case without fulfilling any responsibility to maintain even the slightest bit of excitement.
Saturday: If the songbirds don’t compel you, the snakes will!
Watch or not?: For the love and respect of THG, don’t!
Available At: Drama/Lionsgate
Running time: 2 hours 38 minutes
User Level:
The prequel is set exactly sixty-four years before Katniss’s season of The Hunger Games, and explores the original story of the treacherous, powerful, and sinister Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth). It’s the story of how he wasn’t born bad, fought against his luck, and faced prejudice in society.
Set in the Capitol of Panem after the war, the story tells how Snow falls for his manic pixie girl in District 12’s (Katniss’s district), Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). This complicated relationship is a tribute to The Hunger Games 10, the first to be broadcast on television for the whole world to see, resulting in several episodes that are analyzed throughout the 150 minutes.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Movie Review ( Photo Credit – YouTube )
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Movie Review: Script Analysis
When the world was under the crippling lockdown of COVID-19, Suzanne Collins released the prequel book TBOSAS, surprising everyone (and not in a good way) by writing a story around the original story of Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth). For my Star Wars pages, imagine finding Emperor Palpatine talking about how he wasn’t born to the dark side.
We all love to see villain origin stories because of the emotional depth they face with their antagonists like Joker, Revenge of the Sith, and X-Men: First Class. But this one doesn’t pay proper tribute to Snow, let alone his criminal character. There will come times when you will ask yourself, why do you need to know the history of Snow? Because there is nothing special about this, especially in the third act after his character is created.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Movie Review: Star Performance
Tom Blyth fits the character of Snow White very well and builds the parts of the character arc very well. But, the sloppy writing puts him in the middle of the dilemma of whether this was really necessary or not. What is created by Rachel Zegler should be a secret, as it is in the book, but as they say, you can not draw everything from the game on the screen. Some things make sense once you read them.
Zegler’s Lucy was cast as the wannabe Katniss of the prequel. That’s why he doesn’t act like an actor in the whole movie. He gets a lot but he can’t keep it. Peter Dinklage, dressed as Rasputin, fails to leave a mark as the creator of The Hunger Games. Even the Front Man in Squid Games had a better reputation than Peter’s Casca Highbottom.
Jason Schwartzman kills as Lucky Flickerman aka Weatherman, in just a few scenes, thanks to the well-written relief around him. Lead actress Viola Davis as Volumnia Gaul can be terrifying. Viola’s controlled personality makes you want to know more about Volumnia.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes Movie Review ( Photo Credit – YouTube )
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Movie Review: Direction, Music
Francis Lawrence is back to direct but with a lame script this time. It makes the same mistake that HBO made by canceling the premiere of Game Of Thrones even though it sold $30 million in it. Lawrence tried to bring a story that wasn’t needed or wanted by long time THG fans.
Lawrence brings back his favorite, James Newton Howard, to the rear wheel and he does justice as he does in the rest of the roles. When you have ‘Songbirds’ in the title of your film, it’s hard not to turn the film into a song. Milking ‘The Hanging Tree’ to its core and giving life to The Old Before in Zegler’s voice does well in the movie’s sound department.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, this explains why you can’t take a bypass when you’re connected to a well-known license, even if it’s an original one. It misses all the good things The Hunger Games had, and adds a lot of lousy stuff that doesn’t connect with fans.
Two stars!
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Trailer
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes will be released on November 17, 2023.
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