Review: The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

The new Hunger Games prequel is a worthy expansion of the franchise. Based on the book of the same title by Suzanne Collins from 2020, Lionsgate jumped at the opportunity to make a film based on this latest chapter.

The film tells the backstory of Coriolanus Snow, the antagonist of the original series who eventually led The Hunger Games as President Snow. Taking place around 64 years before the first film, this fills in the younger days of Coriolanus while also providing a deepening of Hunger Games lore.

Importantly though, the movie is just as friendly for new audiences that aren’t familiar with the Hunger Games series, as much as it provides references that will reward those fans who have been following the series.

Tonally, the movie balances tense moments with a hugely sprawling story very solidly. Even though it’s dystopian message is sometimes lost, good character building makes you invested. Coriolanus in particular is presented as a layered character, who wades between good and bad throughout the film, but always remains compelling to the audience — we root for him, and care about him either way.

It’s also a star-making performance for Tom Blyth, a standout for Rachel Zegler with a brilliantly scary supporting cast. Viola Davis is menacing as ever, while Jason Schwartzman delivers a hilariously scary performance as the news anchor and host of the Hunger Games.

For those seeing this on a premium screen, around one hour of footage is shot in 1.90:1 ratio. That means it will fill the screen of a digital IMAX theatre (or VMAX/PLF equivalent) and have black bars at the top and bottom for the remainder of the film shot in 2.39:1. The IMAX scenes are shot incredibly, with some amazing landscape shots and dynamic panning in the Hunger Games arena. Beautiful daytime shots of scenic locations are balanced with fast-paced cut-throat action that is totally worth the premium screen.

Watch our video review here