Review: ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Lands on Top

“The Hunger Games” series took the world by storm in 2012, and its legacy continues in the newest addition to the franchise, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.” This film marks the return of Francis Lawrence, the director of the last three films in the series, and serves as a prequel to the original franchise by documenting the rise of Panem’s President Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth). Snow’s youth and gradual succumbing to evil serves as an emotional battleground that Lawrence takes full advantage of. With a storyline that takes viewers through the tenth Hunger Games, the creation of many of the games’ sinister qualities, and even a quasi-romance, the film has a lot to work with and handles the hefty load impressively.

The film’s impressive complexity comes in the form of the film’s subject himself. Snow refuses to fall throughout the film, and Tom Blyth brings a similar resilience to his portrayal of the villain. Given that Snow’s character development comes primarily through internal monologue in Suzane Collins’s “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” — the prequel upon which the film is based — Blyth was faced with a tall task. Nevertheless, Blyth shines, particularly in his portrayal of Snow’s shifts in morality when he starts to believe that his lover Lucy Gray (Rachael Zegler) tried to kill him. The emotional shifts between his despair and pure rage are chilling, completely mesmerizing the audience throughout this lengthy scene. Blyth’s performance of an immoral figure bound for greatness is entrancing and utterly convincing, further showcasing Snow’s sinister charm that transfixes all whom he encounters.

Zegler serves as a capable scene partner, artfully toeing the line between Lucy Gray’s innocent naivety and instinctual self-preservation. As the title might suggest, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” features music as a key storytelling device, and it narrowly avoids dragging the film into cringeworthy territory due in no small part to Zegler’s truly impressive live vocal performances.

Zegler and Blyth are joined on screen by a stellar supporting cast that produced several stand- out performances. The terrifying and delightfully wicked Dr. Gual (Viola Davis) steals every scene she is in, pushing Snow down an increasingly immoral and wicked path toward power. Lucky Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman), the host of the 10th Hunger Games and presumed ancestor of the original tertology’s Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci), provides delightful comic relief amid a story grappling with grandiose concepts like morality, power, and death.

Of course, a memorable franchise isn’t solely built upon performances, and this is no exception: The “Hunger Games” series' emotionally rich and moving scores carry the story’s memorable themes throughout each film. With the same composer as the original films, James Newton Howard, it is no surprise that the film features impressive orchestral movements. One delightfully unexpected aspect of the film’s music, however, was the direct sampling of a few of the past film’s themes. For example,when Lucy Gray mentioned that she calls the root grown in the lake outside of District 12 katniss, Katniss’s theme from “Catching Fire” begins to play and crescendo in the background. As a book adaptation, the film’s score has the power to add additional nuance to the story described in Collin's novel, and Howard’s approach takes full advantage of this affordance. The film’s direct matching of themes from all four previous films with scenes in the newest one is a moving and thoughtful continuation of the franchise’s signature movements.

While featuring a reaping and Hunger Games structure that is familiar to viewers, the film’s tone takes a distinct shift from its predecessors. In contrast to the previous films, the film is seen through the lens of a citizen of the Capitol. The perspective of a privileged mentor, rather than a tribute, allows the film to delve into the issues of corruption, war, and power — leaning into this cynical tone through the dialogue of the citizens of the Capitol and Snow’s own selfish turn. The resultant pessimism in the film is refreshing to the series’ previously uplifting end.

However, the film does suffer from arguably the same pacing issues and disconnected three act structure that plagued Collins’s novel. While the most important character development and the true descent into evil for Coriolanus Snow occur in Act Three, this act also feels the most rushed — despite the film’s nearly three-hour-runtime. It’s evident that the filmmakers prioritized the flashy iconography of the Games itself at the expense of fixing the novel’s own rushed ending — especially in the scene in which Lucy Gray and Coriolanus explore what a life together would actually mean in District 12. As a result, Snow’s decision to turn against Lucy Gray and his subsequent return to The Capitol is left underdeveloped.

With hefty source material, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” veers on the edge of rushing the book’s focus on Snow to cater to those who came only to see another Hunger Games. Despite this, the film forges its own among the legacy of the past films. As such, fans of the franchise are sure to love the newest addition to the series.

—Staff writer Monique I. Vobecky can be reached at monique.vobecky@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @moniquevobecky.

—Staff writer Jen A. Hughes can be reached at jen.hughes@thecrimson.com. You can also find her on X @Jenhughes.