The Hunger Games : The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes: A review by Riley Barn

The Hunger Games is a book and movie franchise that has been highly respected for years. It is a well written and compelling story with characters that the audience can feel for and can understand without being highly predictable. This franchise was brought to a close with The Hunger Games: Mockingjay part 2 and I thought that that would be the end. I thought the story had come to a close, the main characters had completed their mission and everything was good but I was wrong. I thought that this was going to be another grab for money to milk the last out of a good movie trilogy and I thought that it was going to be just another rubbish prequel nobody wanted. Then I watched the film.

Put simply and the best way I can, this movie perfectly explains Coriolanus Snow's descent into madness because of The Hunger Games and the horrific ways of The Capitol. It follows true to the original hunger games brutality and the horrific ways of Panem. With Snow meeting and becoming a mentor to a girl from district 12 who, along with most contestants, wants to either survive or leave the Games but it doesn't stop there. Similar to the original trilogy it moves away from just the games and into the world of Panem with the exploration of the districts. We learn the lives of the people in districts but also the struggles they would go through to rid themselves of the Capitols rule. Snow is presented as a normal school student of the Capitol just looking to get into university which many people can feel as if they might have gone through something similar. Just at the beginning of the film we can already sympathise with.

Throughout the film we see little hints of Snow's true colours and by the end we see him in his impulsive and mad state of mind after the horrors of Panem consume him in a way I have rarely seen in other films. When I watched this film I realised it had an extremely familiar feeling to it and I would compare it to films like Star Wars Revenge of the Sith where at the beginning of the film we see a normal character living his life but by the end we see his evil self after being manipulated by a higher authority figure. This figure uses things he wants and needs against him and it's all caused by the person he loves. This film isn't exactly a new formula but there was little room for huge surprises as everyone who has seen the original Hunger Games knows who Snow turns out to be.  Most would know that he would eventually fall to evil. The characters all have very unique characteristics and show each of their experiences in Panem in the way they act when forced to do things they otherwise wouldn't do.

I really enjoyed this film and watching it was a blast of emotion and great storytelling. This is also a prequal so anyone whether or not they have seen the originals can still watch and appreciate.