The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a prequel to the popular film series and is based on the 2020 novel by Suzanne Collins.

Set 64 years before the first book/film, the story follows the beginning of Coriolanus Snow’s path to become the leader of Panem.

Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) is 18 years old, living in the Capitol. Ahead of the 10th annual Hunger Games, Snow meets with his classmates to see who will win the Plinth Prize. Snow is sure he will win and plans to use the money to help his family that’s been struggling in a post war Capitol. On Reaping Day, Snow learns there isn’t a Plinth Prize this year for academic excellence, but the prize will go to the student that mentors their Hunger Games tribute the best. Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) assigns a girl from District 12 named Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) as Snow’s mentee.

Snow and Lucy form a relationship as he tries to win the prize money and get Lucy to survive the games. His plan is to use Lucy’s singing as a way to help her survive and get more sponsors. Snow also gives some interesting ideas on how to improve the games to Dr. Gaul (Viola Davis), the head gamemaker.

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes works well as a Hunger Games prequel and as a standalone film – the movie is two films if we’re being honest. There’s Snow and Lucy bonding and the 10th annual Hunger Games, that’s followed by Snow’s life after the games and those first steps to Snow becoming the tyrannical leader fans recognize from the Hunger Games series.

Fans of the book series and movies know where Snow eventually lands (on top), but the film isn’t about where he lands but how he lands there. Tom Blyth does a magnificent job creating a character that likeable and has a lot of bad ideas brewing just beneath the surface. Blyth delivers his best performance in second half of the film as the seeds are planted for the Snow fans grew to hate.

Rachel Zegler performance is fine but not the focal point of the film. Zegler’s singing scenes are very well done and the highlight of her performance. The film also includes good performances from Hunter Schafer as a young Tigris, Josh Andres River as Sejanus Plinth, and Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius Flickerman.

One of the most interesting aspects of the film is the brief scene that shows what the world was before The Hunger Games and how barbaric the Hunger Games were when it was in its infancy. The other interesting thing is how the Capitol looks in the film. Everything from the technology to the cars tells the story of a nation trying to rebuild itself. The story succeeds at pulling the audience behind the doors of the Capitol to show audiences how things work. They show how people at the Capitol were pulling the strings to figure out how to make something as savage as the Hunger Games entertaining for the people of Panem.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is a good film a worthy prequel.  It gives audiences a different look at the world of Panem and what the early days of the games looked like. Tom Blyth gives fans one of the best performances in a Hunger Games movie. It’s unclear if they’ll be a sequel, but the odds may be in our favor.

Grade: B