By Marc S. Sanders
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes is a stellar prequel to Suzanne Collins’ well-known franchise approach to reality television within a barbaric dystopian setting. Francis Lawerence returns to direct this characterization of the would-be antagonist Coriolanus Snow played by unknown Tom Blyth in a blazing performance of innocence eventually corrupted by a warped environment of law.
The story takes place just over sixty years before Collins’ first trilogy that centered on the heroine archer Katniss Everdeen. A vicious annual tournament known as “The Hunger Games” has reached its tenth year and interest in the programming has waned. Rebellion throughout the twelve districts of Panem is getting stronger and the idea of selecting children to compete in a battle royale to the death is frowned upon.
The elite students, which include Coriolanus and his best friend Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andrés Rivera), have been assigned to a new development in the Games. They are to serve as mentors to the selected contestants. Sejanus, who is the son of one of Panem’s wealthiest entrepreneurs, protests the games altogether. He’s outspoken and determined in his efforts to put an end to the event. Yet, his father’s wealth always bails him out. Coriolanus does not seem to have an opinion on the matter. He’s more curious about the showmanship of the contestant that he’s been assigned from District 12, a wildcat by the name of Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler, giving a magnificent presence to her role).
Lucy Gray is a free-thinking troublemaker wearing a wardrobe of colors and design. She is a bursting talent with a guitar as well and an attitude to boot. While the other contestants appear malnourished, poor, sad and legitimately pitiful, Lucy has a guise of confidence and independence. She certainly stands apart from her competition when they are all locked up in a zoo cage for the public and press to look upon as hype ahead of the grand tournament. Lucy is not a skilled fighter, but even without Coriolanus’ guidance she knows how to develop a following.
Elsewhere, there are the puppet masters. There’s Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), the inventor of the games, and teacher to the mentors. He stresses a promising future for the best mentor performance, but there is to be absolutely no cheating. As well, Viola Davis plays a devil of a villain as a Dr. Volumnia Gaul. Think of her as the equivalent to the Nazis’ Dr. Mengele who experiments with new inventions of hideous creatures and process. Her towering canister of colorful snakes is chilling anytime it appears on screen.
The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes has a long running time for a science fiction piece catered for young adults. However, it confirms the error that was made with Collins’ film adaptation of her third novel, Mockingjay, which was split it into two films for the sake of greedy revenue commercialization to line Lionsgate’s pockets. Because this prequel is contained as one piece, Tom Blyth is invited to perform a thrilling character arc of a poor, but intuitive, and good-natured young man who is eventually transformed into an evil personification.
Lawrence’s film has multiple opportunities to end and roll the credits. However, it carries on and becomes a journey for its principal characters, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus Snow are much like in the same vein as Vito and Michael Corleone in The Godfather. Novels often have the luxury of spanning a wide berth of time to inch their way towards a protagonist’s destiny. Movies tend to want to hurry things along. With Francis Lawrence’s film we are granted the time to see how Lucy Gray performs during the leadup to the games as a character of confidence that a public is willing to follow and bet on, but most importantly care about. Accompanying her is Lucy’s mentor, Coriolanus Snow, who is curious and concerned for Lucy’s wellbeing. While being separated from one another for large portions of time, the two characters convincingly fall in love.
The second act of the film is the sport in an arena, far from the technologically sophisticated nature found in the other films. In this prequel chapter, it is simply an in the round stone coliseum of wreckage following a rebellion strike with barbaric weapons left in the center to grasp for advantage.
The third act, which in another director’s hands might have been saved for a churned-out sequel, follows the aftermath of where the characters go from here. Coriolanus becomes an infantryman in District 12 along with Sejanus. A whole new design is introduced late into the film, and it is as if we’ve begun a brand-new episode of a franchise series. What keeps The Hunger Games installments feeling fresh is that we are granted both the events preceding the games as well as what’s occurring thereafter.
The cast is outstanding. Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage have those jaded and unusual appearances suitable for this disturbing setting. Davis especially absorbs the scenery whenever she is on screen. Her costume wear, hair and makeup only enhance her chilling performance. Jason Schwartzman does a superb interpretation of Lucky Flickerman, an ancestor of Stanley Tucci’s flamboyant character from the other films, and the MC for the games.
Rachel Zegler lends her talents for song and guitar to the film, and I loved every second of it. I know she is currently not favorable in the public eye based on comments she has made. However, if she continues to follow a course of picking smart roles and playing them as well as she does here, and like she did in Spielberg’s West Side Story, then she is destined to becoming an elite leading actor in the likes of Julia Roberts and then later Anne Hathaway. I loved every song she performed in the film as well. She lends a twang to her vocals that blend beautifully with her guitar strings.
Tom Blyth is so trusting with his boyish complexion and bleach blond curly mop top. He fits well into the destitute role of the son of a dead would have been tyrant. His wardrobes are described as hand made at home, even with small bathroom tile pieces serving as fashionable buttons on his dress shirt. Blyth, while humble, wears everything with confidence, remaining the exact opposite of the President Snow we knew from Donald Sutherland’s performance in earlier films. This Coriolanus is someone I can trust. Someone I do not question. Yet, when the end of the film arrives, I’m left surprised by the outcome of the character even though I know what’s expected of him. It’s a positively inventive characterization from Suzanne Collins, interpreted with a subtle balance between protagonist and antagonist from Tom Blyth. This guy might have been a better casting choice for Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequel films.
I’m angry at myself for not having yet read The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes. I imagine it’s a crackling good read. The film concludes with doors open for questions that leave me curiously thinking, four days after having seen the picture. I can only hope there are additional films to come that explore even more deeply into Suzanne Collins’ rich tapestry of dystopia and the complex characters that occupy it.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes is one of the best pictures of the year.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 