After Jennifer Lawrence bowed out as Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 in 2015, it appeared that our adventures in Panem were over. But where box office gold can be found, prequels abound and we now have The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, based on the 2020 book of the same name. With perfectly realised world building and an intriguing and engaging but slightly uneven narrative, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is still more than a nostalgic trip but a worthy and entertaining journey back to where it all began. 

 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a young Coriolanus

(Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a postwar Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.

 

While I enjoyed the original Hunger Games films, I wouldn’t say that I was a super fan by any stretch of the imagination. And I guess that’s one of the reasons why The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes took me off guard. The world building is magnificent, never overwhelming us with the details of how Panem and more importantly Coriolanus got here, but giving us the lowdown of the uprising and the creation of the Hunger Games in graphic detail. 

 

But where The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is slightly, narratively shaky is in its depiction of Snow. While I can understand Snow being portrayed in a more sympathetic light in the first two acts, having been shafted by circumstance and society, the continuation of this posture as we proceed into the concluding act is a little shaky. Perhaps they are preparing the audience to be on side with this anti-hero come further sequels, but it just seems a little hollow in light of his increasingly despicable behaviour. 

 

That being said, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an entertaining ride with Tom Blyth’s portrayal of Snow, in all his guile and thirst for power, magnificent and Zegler as Lucy Gray is charming as ever.  

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With perfectly realised world building and an intriguing and engaging but slightly uneven narrative, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is still more than a nostalgic trip but a worthy and entertaining journey back to where it all began.