Director: Francis Lawrence 
Starring: Tom Blyth, Rachel Zegler, Peter Dinklage, Jason Schwartzman, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, Viola Davis
Certificate: 12A
Run Time: 157 mins

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is the latest in the dystopian fantasy series and an adaption of Suzanne Collins’ 2020 novel. This prequel is set 64 years prior to The Hunger Games and follows a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) on his path to political power, the villain devilishly played by Donald Sutherland in the other films. At the start of the film, Snow is selected to mentor a tribute in the 10th Annual Hunger Games and he is paired with the undernourished District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), who is a member of a travelling musician group. Although the film very much fictions as an origin story for Snow, it also serves to explore how the games came to be in the first place. 

Francis Lawrence returns in the director’s chair, having directed all of the previous entries bar the first. While Gary Ross’ original entry is my favourite for its stripped-back and rugged atmosphere, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire doesn’t lag far behind it in how it develops the first film’s thought-provoking themes. I wasn’t so hot on the decision to split the third novel into two films, although The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 was still thoroughly entertaining and they were still competently directed by Lawrence. Does this fifth entry prove there is still life in the series? 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an excellent adaptation and quite possibly the most mature film in the series to date. Lawrence does a great job of showcasing the more outright barbarity of the games, which are minimalist and lack the polish and pizzazz of future arenas. In fact, the games in this film are set in a literal arena, rather than the forest or tropical settings of The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. Knowing Lucy Gray is unlikely to win, Snow suggests revisions to the game structure, such as sponsorship, to improve her chances, while simultaneously propelling the games as a spectacle to increase viewership. 

Tom Blyth makes for an excellent Snow and conveys his calculated nature and like all of the best villain origin stories, we can understand why he becomes the way he does by the film’s end. Rachel Zegler is also strong as Lucy Gray, although neither Blyth or Zegler share the same levels of chemistry as Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson did in the original. 

Viola Davis is deliciously evil as gamemnaker Dr Volumnia Gaul and Jason Schwartzman is another standout as Lucky Flickerman, a predecessor of Caesar (Stanley Tucci), who Schwartzman channels. Josh Andrés Rivera is also excellent as Sejanus, a classmate of Snow who grows increasingly resentful of the games. 

Composer James Newton Howard returns to score this film and he deftly melds past and new memorable themes. The film’s lusciously shot by Lawrence-regular Jo Willems, who really captures the wonder of the Capitol and the expanse of the forest outside of District 12. The film look like it’s worth a lot more than its $100 million budget. 

Although many have taken issue with it, the third act was the most interesting because it is so starkly different from the games-driven first two acts. It hurtles towards Snow’s descent into villainy and really develops the remaining characters. The film is the longest in the series at 157 minutes but justifies its length through the sheer amount of material it needs to get through. 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is an excellent return to Panem and I really admired its more cold-blooded tone and its deeper dive into Snow’s character. It breathes new life into the series and it’ll be interesting to see if Collins writes a sequel to further explore Snow’s rise to power. It’s not quite as thrilling as the first two films but it’s a step-above both Mockingjay films and that’s more than one could hope for. 

⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Excellent)