Grade: C+
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes gives us the origin story of young Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland in the other movies. Here, he is played by 28-year-old Tom Blyth, and we see how he goes from fresh-faced hero to a man who rises to the top to eventually become President Snow, by any means necessary.
It’s the 10th annual Hunger Games – 64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as a tribute. Songbirds & Snakes is split up into three acts. The first, and least interesting, is where Snow learns he will be a mentor to tribute Lucy Gray Bird (Rachel Zegler). Act two picks up with the games, and has some nice action. Act three deals with the aftermath, which includes Snow’s punishment for having given Lucy Gray advantages in less-than-legal ways.
If West Side Story – in which Zegler played Maria – was her star-making turn, you could call S&S her star-establishing role. She is a powerhouse. She does a lot of singing. I wish the first song she plays on the guitar could realistically be nominated for an Oscar, but it’s a bit short, and the lyrics are too specific to the plot for general consumption (talking about districts and tributes and such). Other standouts include Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, and Jason Schwartzman as Lucky Flickerman – the character played by Stanley Tucci in the films that chronicle the later years.
I am glad I saw it on one of the biggest screens I’ve ever seen a movie. They call it Big D. The shots, in the third act especially, look breathtaking in Big D. I’d say see it on the largest screen possible, but if a movie is strong enough, it should stand on its own whether you watch it in IMAX or your phone. I gave The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes as much credit as I want to. Will I be rushing out to see another film in the series? The odds aren’t in favor of that.
Grade: C+
Film Reviews by Mark 
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