In the early to mid-2010s, “The Hunger Games” was the king of the box office. This series of four films, based on the popular books by Suzanne Collins, grossed almost US$3 billion worldwide, turned Jennifer Lawrence into a household name, and probably influenced many girls to take up archery.
Then things went silent for a while; it almost seemed like 2015’s “Mockingjay Part 2” was the last journey fans would take to the dystopian world of Panem.
In Hollywood, however, you can’t keep a good franchise down for long. This year, the series returns to the silver screen with “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes”, a prequel based on the 2020 book of the same name.
The film, however, feels just like its title: overly long and rather clunky. It suffers from awkward and unnatural dialogue, and while its action scenes are well-crafted, viewers don’t get anything they haven’t seen before.
Director Francis Lawrence, the man behind the last three “Hunger Games” films, returns for this instalment, which takes place 64 years before the adventures of previous protagonist Katniss Everdeen.
Here’s a story refresher: every year, as punishment for losing a bloody war, each of its 12 districts send two representatives, a boy and a girl, to fight in the Hunger Games. This huge battle to the death serves as entertainment for the public, with great rewards for its sole survivor.
“Songbirds and Snakes” focuses on Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who you might remember as the tyrannical president of Panem, the Big Bad of the previous films. Here, and now, he is a struggling student, the only son of a once-powerful family fallen from grace.
Desperate to rise socially, Snow gets the chance after he is recruited as a mentor for one of the Hunger Games tributes. This is the charming Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Ziegler) of District 12, a singer everyone expects to die within the Games’ first minutes.
Snow does his best to help Baird, and forms a bond with her: in the process, he ends up changing the way the Games are played, and makes tough choices with deadly consequences for everyone.
Overall, the plot feels overstuffed, as “Songbirds and Snakes” crams too many events into its two-hour-and-37-minute runtime. This is a shame as there are some very interesting worldbuilding aspects here, but the film rushes over them and, as a result, leaves little impact.
To its credit, the movie does contain several entertaining and even impressive scenes, some of which could even be said to be the best in the series.
The plot also takes unexpected turns, though not always to the film’s benefit. The Games, presumably the driving force of the narrative, come to an unexpected conclusion, and yet many things happen thereafter that could’ve been made into movies unto themselves.
And while it may seem strange to focus entirely on the villain, films such as “Joker” demonstrate it can be done well. Alas, while there are some very nice dark moments in Snow’s eventual fall (or rise?) to the dark side, many of them come far too late in the story to make any lasting impact.
The film’s strongest quality is its talented cast. Blyth does a decent job, keeping Snow relatable while not watering down his character’s negative traits. You ALMOST forget this poor kid turns into a terrible baddie in the future!
Ziegler does her best as Lucy Gray, and certainly sings well. Yes, the film has several musical scenes – the word “ballad” isn’t in the title for nothing!
And Viola Davis, almost unrecognisable with a shock of grey hair and mismatched eyes, steals every scene as sinister snake-loving Head Gamemaker Dr Volumnia Gaul.
All in all, though, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” has some nice ssssuspense and story beats but doesn’t completely take flight; and getting to these few bright moments through a mess of inert and joyless scenes can be quite a slog.
Oh well, maybe diehard “Hunger Games” fans will get more enjoyment out of it. May the odds be ever in their favour.
‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ screens in cinemas nationwide from today.