The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)
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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Movie Review
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a 2023 dystopian action film directed by Francis Lawrence and starring Tom Blyth in the main role. It’s a very strong adaptation.
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“Nothing you can take from me was ever worth keeping“
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This is the first Hunger Games movie after the last film concluded the original series back in 2015. It is supposed to revitalize the franchise by adapting the Suzanne Collins novel that was first published in 2020. When all is said and done, this will rank among the best entries in the franchise and by far the most underrated one.
Francis Lawrence directed the film so well and it’s such a technically polished, epic and beautifully made movie that offers great proof that Hollywood can adapt young adult novels well when they really make an effort. The costume design on this film is fantastic with very memorable clothes that are diverse and quite striking. The production design is also superb with the set where the games are organized being especially well detailed.
The cinematography is also outstanding, perfectly capturing the action on screen. The editing and pacing are also mostly on-point. One of the standout elements has to be the score, though, as it’s quite moving and grandiose. The soundtrack is also excellent. The songs aren’t truly memorable, but they were gorgeously sung by Zegler and quite touching in their lyrics.
The movie works as it adapts the source material faithfully while still feeling very cinematic and thrilling. The beginning is a bit rushed and it won’t be fully coherent to those viewers who haven’t read the book, but the games were reliably intense and the third act was mostly excellent. I did have a big problem with how they took away Lucy Gray’s agency and made her rely on luck way too much. Half of the tributes being too over-the-top in their villainy was also frustrating. But other than those smaller issues, the games themselves were mostly phenomenally executed with so many visceral thrills, strikingly brutal kills and extremely high stakes. The fact that this movie isn’t R-rated just goes to show how desensitized to violence we’ve become as a society.
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As for the third act, it mostly worked for me. I do get those complaints that the film is somewhat rushed and chaotic, but I wholeheartedly disagree with the assessment that this book should have been adapted into two films instead of one. There was a time and age when movies were more sophisticated and complex in their narratives and this is one of those films, so no, it did not need to be two movies when this one epic two and half hour flick would suffice. The ending was very effective and the third act containing so many close-ups on the main actor’s face worked in the context of this more intimate character study.
Speaking of the actor, Tom Blyth did a surprisingly good job in the role of Coriolanus Snow. He looked and acted the part while especially delivering in the more intimate scenes. He has a very interesting look to him, so he fitted this role like a glove. I also have to say that I really liked Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray. Yes, her accent was problematic, but her performance was excellent and she was just radiant on screen. Their chemistry was solid and the romance as it was depicted on the screen really worked.
Josh Andres Rivera was effective as the tragic Sejanus and the main male friendship was quite well portrayed and moving in this film. Peter Dinklage was just okay as Highbottom and the character was somewhat underutilized. The standouts are easily Jason Schwartzman and Viola Davis, both delivering ridiculously, but fittingly over-the-top performances. The former was downright hilarious in some of his witty remarks while the latter was unforgettable as the menacing, monstrous main villain. Davis rarely performs villains, but here she was delightfully horrible.
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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is tonally interesting as it contains some black humor in certain scenes that made it funny, but in a disturbing way. The dystopian elements were well conveyed and the movie is wholly riveting from beginning to end, being one of the most entertaining blockbusters in recent years. It’s an underappreciated gem.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is one of the best and most underrated Hunger Games movies. While it does feel chaotic due to its epic scope and some smaller changes from the source material were problematic, this was mostly a faithful, strong adaptation that was wonderfully cinematic, thrilling and grandiose. Striking costumes, superb sets and a phenomenal score coupled with superbly executed action scenes made for a solid technical achievement while the acting performances were uniformly great with the standouts being Jason Schwartzman and Viola Davis, both delightfully over-the-top and memorable. I do realize that some may find the film too rushed, but I would much rather have one long, epic film that is rich in story, character arcs and themes than two full movies that have no truly legitimate reason to exist.
My Rating – 4.5
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