The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023) Review

“It’s the things we love the most that destroy us”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Suzanne Collin’s The Hunger Games defined the 2010s shortly after Hollywood moved on from Harry Potter and Twilight, having its own batch of financial/critical success. Although the story of Katniss Everdeen was over, that doesn’t mean there weren’t other ideas to explore.


PLOT


Based on the fourth novel in the book series, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes follows the origin of Coriolanus Snow, showing how he became the powerful figure the world would remember him for. In his childhood, he and his cousin Tigris were struggling financially because they lost their Capitol wealth when his father died in battle as a military general and their investments in District 13 munitions were destroyed by a then rebellion, resulting them to be raised by their grandmother “Grandma’am” (Fionnula Flanagan). Turning 18 years old in his graduation, he is tasked to be a mentor alongside his friend Sejanus Plinth for the 10th annual Hunger Games. Snow hopes to win it to secure a scholarship that’ll restore his prosperity. Sejanus would mentor a boy named Marcus from District 2 (Jerome Lance), whereas Snow would mentor a 16 year old girl named Lucy Gray Baird from District 12. Dean Casca Highbottom, who created the games, declared the winner of the Prize will go to the best mentor based on how they train the tributes to perform in front of the cameras and become their own spectacles; Anyone caught cheating will not earn the prize. Snow takes this serious when finding Baird expresses defiance when she sings to the Capitol and throws a snake down the dress of Mayor Lipp’s daughter Mayfair (Isobel Jesper Jones) who orchestrated her name to be in the Reaping over her boyfriend Billy Taupe (Dakota Shapiro). He earns her trust when accompanying her to a Capitol Zoo where the other tributes are publicly caged. That same day, weatherman turned games host Lucretius ‘Lucky’ Flickerman visits to interview the tributes. Baird does win over an audience when revealing she originated from a music group and was trapped in D12 following the previous war. After the interview, Lucy Gray asks Coriolanus to be fed since none of the tributes have eaten since the Reaping. At a mentor meeting, Highbottom considers disqualifying him for his actions, but Sejanus and fellow classmate Arache Crane (Lilly Cooper) defend him since the tributes are now looked at as people instead of the animals they cage them up to be. Head Gamemaker Volumnia Gaul also chimes in to express being impressed of what he did, but doesn’t like his answer that the games exist to punish the other districts. She even kills another student, Clemensia Dovecote (Ashley Liao), via poisonous snakes over her intention to share Snow’s idea of the citizens to place bets rather than come up with her own idea. When Coriolanus sees Baird again and keeps his promise in feeding her and fellow tribute Jessup (Nick Benson), the day goes awry when Crane gets killed by her own D10 tribute Brandy (Luna Kuse). Predictably, Peacekeepers neutralize the situation by shooting her down. When the tributes are later taken to the planned arena by mentors, not even that goes well due to rebels bombing the place, which kills Sabyn from D2 (Yuli Lam) & Ginnee from D6 (Kyra Reinert), and the D1 tributes Facet & Velvereen (Tim Torok & Vara Kane) died trying to escape with Marcus. Baird almost escaped, but ended up saving Snow from burning debris. He then recovers in the hospital to see her sing for the arranged interviews, which gets sponsor donations as he hoped. Once he checks out, he sees her again at Capitol Zoo and further helps her when by giving her rat poison sealed in a compact. On the day of the games, Sejanus ballistically walks out of the Academy viewing room as Marcus is shown to be hung in the middle of the arena. As the games start, Baird and Jessup do their best to retreat and hide from alliances made between other tributes. Within the first day, the tributes that died in combat are: Circ & Teslee from D3 (Felix Audu & Vaness Blanck), Hy & Sol from D5 (Kittipong Ace Cunjanagan & Samoa Hoffman) and Panlo & Sheaf from D9 (Lucas Wilson & Jona Marie Laux). Lamina from D7 (Irene Boehm) gives Marcus a mercy kill as she unhangs him. As the games continue overnight, Highbottom assures to Snow he’ll make sure he doesn’t win the prize whether or not Baird wins the games, due to a personal vendetta he has towards his father. Gaul would later warn Snow that Sejanus is sneaking into the arena to perform a D2 tradition, trying to pay respects to Marcus. He pulls off getting him out in time due to the Gamemaker temporarily turning off the feed, and was motivated with her promise to convince Sejanus’ father Strabo to give him the prize if he wins. Before the feed resumes, Snow defends himself from D8’s Bobbin Keel (Knox Gibson). When others see him kill the tribute, they vow to personally kill Lucy Gray. By the next morning, his tribute would discover Jessup to succumb to rabies that originated of a bat bite he got before being transferred to Capitol Zoo. Snow gives her a fighting chance when sending multiple water donations to distract ‘The Pack’. Baird uses this to put the poison in a water bottle, which Dill of D11 (Luna Steeples) ends up drinking and dies from. Lamina & D10’s Tanner (Kjell Brutscheidt) would also die in the hands of the Pack, and D7’s Treech (Hiroki Berrecloth) would die from Baird dropping the poison onto him. Shortly after Reaper Ash of D11 (Dimitri Abold) does a memorial for the fallen in protest, Gaul announces Felix Ravenstill (Aamer Husain), son of the President of Panem to have died from his injuries of the Rebel bombing as well and plans to retaliate by punishing all the remaining tributes via throwing in her tank of snakes. Snow makes sure Lucy Gray survives by throwing a handkerchief in the tank for her scent to be recognized and is declared the winner. The remaining tributes that died were: Reaper, Mizzen & Coral of D4 (Cooper Dillon & Mackenzie Lansing), and Wovey of D8 (Sofia Sanchez). Lucy Gray does win the Hunger Games, but Highbottom finds the handkerchief and the compact as proof of cheating. As punishment, Snow is sentenced to 20 years as a Peacekeeper. He gets to D12 thanks to a bribe and Sejanus joins him due to his disillusionment of the Capitol’s ideals. Snow does find joy in reuniting with Lucy Gray as he hoped before plans of him being transported to D2 for officer training, ordered by Commander Hoff (Burn Gorman). That doesn’t happen because one night after seeing Baird perform, he catches Sejanus in talks of a rebellion with not only Mayfair and Billy, but another rebel named Spruce (George Sommer). The confrontation ultimately led to Snow shooting Mayfair and Spruce shooting Billy. Snow ends up later doing the unthinkable by snitching on Sejanus by using a jabberjay to overhear his plans. This decision leads to Spruce and his former friend being hung for treason. He would then flee north with Lucy Gray to a remote cabin, only to find out she stashed the guns that tie him to his betrayal. As this proves she doesn’t trust him anymore, she runs away from him when using a snake to bite him as a distraction. He does shoot at her, but there is no sign of proof that he injured let alone grazed her. With no witness left, he dumps the guns in the lake and returns to D12. Upon his return, Gaul brings him back to the Capitol to announce she procured his pardon and scholarship he was entitled to, while studying under her at Capitol University. Because Sejanus’ parents do not know what he did to their son, they adopt him as an heir. He then changes his previous answer and believes the Hunger Games are needed to be reminded of the Capitol’s dominance, to deter future rebellions especially since they will still go on after ratings exceeded expectations. On the first day of attending, he visits Highbottom for the last time, who reveals he was drunk when coming up with the idea of the games as a joke until his father stole the idea and pitched it to Gaul. As a result of his regret, he drinks his sorrows away hoping the games would die out. Snow then gives him a poison he disguises to be morphling and the film ends with him walking away, beginning his new life as a member of the Capitol.


THOUGHTS


As a fan of both the books and the films, it’s a no brainer that Lionsgate would capitalize in adapting this prequel. And honestly, I think it delivered in being a shocking tale of the past. With Francis Lawrence returning to direct, it was instantly in the right hands and was a fascinating experience. What I liked most about this entry is how the era is appropriately dated as if this would happen, thanks to impressive costume/makeup/production design. Because of this, you feel all the dread that the games should not have ever happened and are disturbed of anyone in this setting to ever call it entertainment. This is definitely the dystopia you’re relieved to not exist, but give this disturbing vibe that it could at any moment and personally, the cinematography by Jo Willems sold me in the realism. The visual effects on the snake tank was also scary as hell because that ain’t the kind of thing anyone would want to jump into unless you were in Fear Factor. While I don’t think this is the best entry as my favorite remains Catching Fire, this one holds up because like Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, this is a fine example of how people can go from seemingly good to quickly corrupted of power & circumstance. This is the case of Coriolanus Snow because you want to believe he’s a good guy, but his entitlement gets the best of him. Tom Blyth smoothly fills in the shoes left behind by the late Donald Sutherland to capture this character was far more ambitious others can recall. He had lived a struggling life and showed calculating determination to get out of it like many would. The cost of it is becoming severely motivated to manipulate anyone in his way and he did just that in exponential fashion. He starts out respecting how Sejanus feels since Josh Andrés Rivera showed him come off as the only one who wants to be humble, proven with every time he chose defiance to authority. The longer they were together though, the more of a reason he had to detach himself from him because he didn’t want the same thing as him. Sadly, that was all it took to betray him when the opportunity was given. It was already disturbing to see all those children die in the games since they never had a say, but Sejanus felt the worst because it could’ve been avoided had he just let not got in his way. He chose rebellion because he didn’t think he could make a difference with his wealth, but I think there could’ve been a good campaign if he tried. And the sound effects of the jabberjays capturing his last words did not make it any better on coping with what happened to him. Of course, Snow’s manipulation didn’t even start there but with another innocent person he took advantage of for his own gain. Rachel Zegler was amazing as Lucy Gray because she showed herself to be charismatic whenever she sang, but was cunning as well in her own way because she uses whatever she advantages to survive or use what she already knows. She did not know Snow put the handkerchief in the tank, so the latter was her last resort as an act to potentially control them, which fools the Capitol’s audience and even herself spectacularly. Snow may have been attracted to her but the longer he was with her, he was attracted to the idea of her he created to win rather than her actual self. It was a big risk for her to keep the guns since we don’t know for sure if Snow succeeded in getting a shot at her, her last act of defiance proved that everyone will eventually see through his deception the way future victors like Katniss would. Before Lucy Gray, it’s clear that the first one to see through him was his own family. Hunter Schafer was quite interesting as Tigris in her given time because we’re able to understand she was most empathetic to him, since they were struggling together. Had she not given him the advice to ensure trust with his tribute, he likely would’ve not won at all, so an amount of credit to success goes to her as well. But once the games became a part of his life, she saw how much he was changing and once he restarted his life when returning home, she realized the good in him was long gone, thus drifting apart as revealed in Mockingjay. Considering that Coriolanus set a high bar on how bad a government leader, the interest only rose in seeing his inspiration. Jason Schwartzman was a standout as Lucky Flickerman, Caesar’s ancestor (possible father) due to being a natural at his egomaniacal charm that wins the crowd over, but the main source of inspiration in terms of cruelty goes to Gaul. Viola Davis was much more haunting as this character compared to DC’s Amanda Waller because her twisted straightforward-ness in getting what she wants is enough to be intimidated by her. She was willing to throw out the games to prove her point, which could’ve concluded the tradition at that moment but she was able to keep it going with the Capitol because they knew they needed the world to know there was still dominance in their hands which she proved to have taught Snow since he didn’t hesitate betraying people who saw differently. Last but not least, I think Highbottom was the most complex character we’ve gotten in the series to date thanks to a captivating performance from Peter Dinklage. Here, we get to see that he did originally believe in what the Capitol was about, but once he realized the trauma he was causing, he hated his own creation. He felt like it was his duty to single out Coriolanus in order to keep him from going to the dark side, but I personally believe he could’ve avoided this by taking him under his wing. Because he didn’t, consequences caught up to him much sooner that he wouldn’t see his vision end as he wished. I find this film impressive, but there were a handful of things that didn’t make much sense to me as I rewatched it. For instance, why does Highbottom call Baird a runt girl when she looks healthy compared to Dill? I know this sets up her exceed expectations, but it’s a pointless insult when you look back on it. Also, why didn’t the Capitol move the tributes to another arena after the rebel bombing? If they didn’t want another possible escape or an interference much like Sejanus would do, a new venue would’ve done the trick. That’s just as bad as not having guards at Capitol Zoo during a graveyard shift. Had that happened, Snow would’ve not given Baird the compact. The same can be said with putting the handkerchief in the tank. And how exactly does enlistment work as a Peacekeeper? Snow is there as punishment for cheating, but the others make it seem they’ve anticipated this position. If this is supposed to be go-to for every sentence, this should be clarified. I mean it’s a surprise he has time off when being a Peacekeeper is supposed to be a punishment. On top of that, how the hell did no one hear the gunshots during the performance across the building? They were loud as a firework, not quiet like a house. Lastly, I don’t even see the point of the bandmates not joining Lucy Gray in fleeing. If she chose to ditch them due to the intent on killing Snow, that should’ve been clear as well. Ignore these issues, then you’ll still enjoy everything else that’s shown. In conclusion, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a fascinating entry to the series for being smart in showing the complexity of motivations itself. If you’re a fan of the books and have enjoyed past adaptations, I find it a no brainer you’ll like this too.