The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Serving as both an adaptation to the Suzanne Collins novel and a prequel to the first four films with Jennifer Lawrence, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes looks at the origins of Coriolanus Snow and how he began his rise to power to become President of Panem. Starting out as barely able to afford for his family, Snow is given the chance at greater prosperity when he and other Academy students have to mentor for the chosen tributes in the 10th Hunger Games. In his attempt to win and gain higher status he ends up falling for his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, while also cheating to gain the upper hand, betraying anyone and everyone, and going to hell and back. Being set over fifty years before the 2012 film, you get to see how different the world of Panem and the Districts are in terms of the technology, the views on the Districts and Games, and how the Tributes were treated and the Game was played. The direction from Francis Lawrence is well done, pretty much the same as the last time he directed for the series 8 years ago. Well done action scenes, combined with the exquisite cinematography of Jo Willems and Mark Yoshikawa's brisk and quick editing, gives us a really good looking movie. While the writing between Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt is well enough by giving us very rounded characters and a unique take for the series wherein the actual Games only occur in the first half while the second explore's Snow's time as a Peacekeeper and being with Lucy Gray in District 12 culminating in how he makes his way back to Panem. True the story could have been split into two movies where one focuses more on the Games and the second on Snow's rise, and while there are aspects that could have been better executed with more time, for the most part it's done pretty well. What helps are the performances from the cast, but most especially from Tom Blyth as Snow and Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray who share an incredibly strong chemistry that without it would definitely lead to the movie failing. This may not be the strongest film in the series, but The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes does mange to be a strong entry in the franchise regardless. Over all: 100%

2023 top list so far:

1. Oppenheimer

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

4. Asteroid City

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

6. Blue Beetle

7. Barbie

8. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1

9. Elemental

10. Air

11. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

12. Creed III

13. John Wick: Chapter 4

14. Scream VI

15. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

16. Killers of the Flower Moon

17. M3GAN

18. Dumb Money

19. The Marvels

20. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

21. Cocaine Bear

22. Knock at the Cabin

23. The Flash

24. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

25. Renfield

26. Fast X

27. The Little Mermaid 2023

28. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

29. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

30. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania