The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – Review
157 Minutes, Rated PG-13
Written by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt
Directed by Francis Lawrence
**NOTE: this post may be updated with audio once we actually have the chance to talk about it. Until then, you can read Mark’s review below. Remember, though, you can listen to all our discussions of this and every other movie directly over on ACAST. Stay tuned.**
Synopsis:
Coriolanus Snow mentors and develops feelings for the female District 12 tribute during the 10th Hunger Games.
Much has been said about Rachel Zegler after the lackluster box office performance of West Side Story and the blowback from both her commentary about and the visuals on the upcoming Disney live-action Snow White, there is a perception that this Hunger Games prequel is going to be critical to determining her bankability as a leading actress in Hollywood.
I agree.
So how does Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes do?
While Zegler is the leading actress here, it’s not her film. This is the (origin) story of President Coriolanus Snow from the original trilogy of books.
A man who puts the “anus” in Coriolanus, to be sure.
You think I’m joking? The entire movie everyone calls him “Corio” because they probably couldn’t get through a take saying “anus” all the time.
It’s been so long since the original films came out, was anyone really clamoring to see how Donald Sutherland became the evilest evil since ever?
Turns out, it’s a pretty boring story, though I will hit some of what I thought were some interesting points first:
– Beginning with a flashback to 3 years after “the war” we see that the Capital isn’t untouchable, as it’s ravaged, with a young Snow scavenging for food against other survivors and animals.
– Contrary to the perception of the later books/movies, the Capital isn’t all shiny happy people; there’s a stratification of its citizenry, with some of its residents falling far below the ideal presented in the first films.
Taking place during the 10th Hunger Games, the discussion is whether or not the games even need to continue being held. The Capital has an academy whose purpose isn’t entirely clear, save that the students are involved with the planning of the Games in some way. Now, they must, for the first time, help the Tributes to not simply win the Games, but convince people to watch them: to turn them into “spectacles” in order to drive viewership.
“If it bleeds, it leads,” if you will.
The problem with The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, at least for me, is that the world, even with as much flux as it’s in, isn’t developed enough to really grasp how things work together, and so it’s hard to really end up giving a crap about anything that is going on because it’s all just isolated things that seem interesting in a vacuum, but don’t really (for me, at least) sync up into any sort of greater whole.
And don’t even get me started on the complete lack of chemistry between our two leads. Snow is as bland as the paleness his name implies (though could as easily called him beige), while Zegler, sporting a Dolly Parton-esque Appalachian drawl, is intensely grating throughout, vacillating between helpless maiden and stoic powerhouse in any given moment.
There is nothing genuine or convincing about any attraction the two may or may not share.
It’s frustrating as hell. Whatever one might think of the quality (or originality) of the first trilogy, at least the world was built out, and the characters acted within it. This feels like they just tried to ride the IP’s name and its established audience and throw a hot-name actress and up-and-coming young actor into it and wait for the money to roll in.
It won’t, and it shouldn’t.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is in theaters now and stars Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Viola Davis, Hunter Schafer, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, and Fionnula Flanagan.
And remember, if the BEST thing you can say about a movie is that it’s “visually stunning,” then they’ve done something wrong.
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