64 years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow sees a chance for a change in fortunes when he mentors Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12.
Things you should know about me:
- I was (am?) a Hunger Games superfan (to the point that I launched an ill-fated webseries project which got me bankrupt, but that’s a story for another time)
- I loved The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes when it came out. It was really good and seeing the bootstrap years is a completely different outlook.
Things I found out about this movie:
- The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has many issues and the fact that the movie is so faithful to the novel (like the original trilogy!) really, really underlines them.
- Like its predecessors, it’s probably only good if you already read and enjoyed the novel(s).
Don’t get me wrong, this was a good movie! I had a good time! The actors were excellent and the arena was everything I had ever imagined! But oh, the corniness of Lucy Gray Baird and her singing… it was too much.
Then again: it’s an excellent prequel about a fascinating character, Coriolanus Snow. Baird is a distraction and when I started viewing her as such, I could tolerate her more and actually focus on the story and on the real topic of the movie: Snow’s rise, and fall, and rise. (The actress, Rachel Zegler, who was brilliant in the new West Side Story, really does her best. Her character is just too much.)
Also of note:
- You’d think that reading the book and knowing that there’s the word Snakes in the title of the movies would be enough of a warning for the herpetophobic person that I am.
- I was less affected by them that I usually am, though. Progress?
- It’s very impressive what a haircut will do to an actor’s character.