★★★★★ (out of 5)
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is by far one of the best entries in The Hunger Games franchise! A perfect adaptation of the novel, it expands on its dark dystopian world with rich costumes, stunning art direction, an epic score, and a sense of scale and scope that’s fitting for this prequel about the rise of President Snow. And it’s so much richer than dystopian young adult adaptations are usually ever allowed to be! I’m struggling to remember the last time a prequel was this much better and more interesting than the rest of its franchise. I love the nuanced, darker story that is more of a character study than anything which was so well executed by returning director Francis Lawrence in this colder prequel. He brought new life to the franchise with his masterful take on Catching Fire, and did it once again with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, delivering a darker, more sinister version of the Games through Snow’s perspective that is ten times better than it has any right to be.
Significantly more intimate and grounded than the previous Hunger Games movies (despite being longer than any of them and responsible for seeding all of their lore), The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the rare prequel that manages to stand on its own two feet and still feel taller than the other stories it’s ultimately meant to support.
But the real star is the cast. They crush it. Rachel Zegler truly shines and is super captivating in this. If you thought she was good in West Side Story, just wait until you see her here! Plus she gets to show off her incredible singing skills multiple times! I really loved her here, she truly is a star on the rise. Her character Lucy Gray is very different from Katniss, (Katniss was a fighter forced to perform, Lucy Gray is a performer forced to fight) and the tense, twisty dynamics between Lucy and Tom Blyth’s Coriolanus are a treat to watch. Tom Blyth is a standout, selling Snow’s moral ambiguity/decay with such a subtle, nuanced, and gifted performance. Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage are powerhouses and wildly compelling, as they usually are. Davis’ character in particular is so devious, and it’s so marvelous to watch. Plus this film has one of the 3 best Jason Schwartzman performances of the year - he’s hilarious in this!
With high stakes, solid action, and killer performances, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a thrilling return to Panem, assisted by some excellent production design and the return of memorable motifs/themes in the musical score. I love that so many people who worked on the original films came back for this one, really helping to make it all feel cohesive with the other films (especially thanks to James Newton Howard’s excellent score)! This is purely grand, epic storytelling. It’s long for sure, but doesn’t drag. It works well by doing something fairly different from the first series, taking on a unique story structure that most studios would try to separate into a two-part movie. But I’m so glad they didn’t split this up, and it still came out as such a faithful adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ novel. I loved this film! My sister, who doesn’t love movies, loved this film (said it’s the longest she’s ever been compelled by a movie)! It’s genuinely a very fair candidate for the best film in The Hunger Games franchise, either as good as or better than Catching Fire! The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a magnificent film that not only excels in its own right, but also enriches the original franchise that is it now a part of. If you loved The Hunger Games, you can’t miss this!
It’s the things we love most that destroy us.
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