I've always been a big fan of The Hunger Games books firstly, and movies secondly. There's a reason they resonated so much with readers and audiences between the story they told, Suzanne Collins' intense writing, the production values of the films, and the star-studded casts.
I didn't pay much attention to the prequel book - The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes - when it came out. I added it to my massive "To Be Read" (someday) list. I also wasn't convinced it would be worthwhile...did I really care about the origins of President Snow? Once the movie was announced, I bumped it up the list considerably and found myself once again enraptured in the world of Panem. Different than our original trilogy's time by several decades and with a different kind of story.
Director Francis Lawrence is once again at the helm, the man responsible for Catching Fire (the OG series high point), and Mockingjay Part I and II...as well as Red Sparrow (a MUCH different kind of film!). With him comes some of the best parts of that original quadrilogy: high production values, a unique setting with lots of set and costume design, and a strong cast.
Much like the novel of the same name, BSS (my loving abbreviation because I don't want to keep typing all that out) is a prequel that feels like a story worth telling, particularly for fans. It's not essential in any way, but it's more time in this world and Collins remains able to form a gripping plot. As mentioned, the production values are high in BSS with a unique "era" of Panem, very good cinematography more often than not, and special effects that hold their own - outside of a couple obvious scenes. Unfortunately, what holds it back is the same exact thing that held the book back *cue suspenseful music*
Our tale - or ballad if you will - tells of a young Coriolanus Snow. His family is trying to save face in the Capital and look wealthier than they are while he tries to win a scholarship of sorts that could right the ship of his trajectory. Meanwhile, The Hunger Games are losing viewership and thus the Capital taps into the bright young minds of their youth to "mentor" the new tributes in a new role to the Games. Snow gets paired with Lucy Gray and falls in love, doing anything to ensure her survival in the arena. Tom Blyth plays Snow and while I wasn't sold on him at first, he does a lot of good work where he earns his keep. Part of me thinks they could have found someone better, but Blyth is by no means bad in the role. Rachel Zegler on the other hand is a perfect Lucy Gray. Her performance feels organic and even the musical numbers from her - of which there are several - are fantastic, becoming some of the film's highlights. In addition, Viola Davis chews the scenery as a crazy Dr. Gaul (responsible for the game's terrors), Peter Dinklage is subtly exquisite as Dean Highbottom, and Jason Schwartzman takes Hunger Games hosting duties from Tucci (no small feat!) as Lucky Flickerman, providing some dark comedic relief at times.
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| Two pictures in a Rapid Review? How controversial of me! |
Circling back to the main issue however: while this is an interesting prequel about an earlier Hunger Games, it never truly feels like the origin story of the main evil villain in the original story. Snow is a character, yes, but just the same as I finished the book and had to ask, "So wait, how does he become the evil ruler of Panem then?" the film features this gap similarly. One minute Snow is deeply in love with Lucy Gray and across the course of 5-10 minutes, character motivations become VERY muddy and then suddenly a person who has generally been good for the first 90% of the film is suddenly kinda bad. It doesn't ruin all that comes before it, but it's an overall problem with the story where I'm not confident Collins knew how to wrap it up and if there was one place I wanted the film to fix, it was this. The whole ending leads to a film (and book TBF) that's longer than it needs to be by ~ 20-30 minutes.
If you're a Hunger Games fan as I am (or enjoyed the novel) then BSS is of the same good/great quality of those films. If you're not, then this is not essential for you and you probably won't find much to enjoy. But the glaring gaps at the end still ring loud and frustratingly, diminishing the overall returns.
Rapid Rath's Review Score | 7.5/10
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