The first ever story of The Hunger Games was a book published by Suzanne Collins in September 2008. Little did we know, this book was going to be the beginning of one of the most well-known dystopian book series and adaptations ever made. 

The Hunger Games is a post-apocalyptic series about an annual event in the country of Panem, where a boy and a girl from each of the 12 districts are randomly chosen to fight to the death. The people of Panem watch and the winner is pardoned from having to compete in the Hunger Games again.

The most recent iteration, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, was released to mixed, but mostly positive reviews. This movie is the prequel to the Hunger Games movies and features the 10th Hunger Games and the rise of antagonist, President Snow, with Tom Blyth starring as Coriolanus Snow and Rachel Zegler playing Lucy Gray Baird.

The casting for this adaptation was done amazingly. Rachel Ziegler expertly captured the balance between the colorful yet tough personality of Lucy Gray, even down to mimicking a southern accent throughout the film and during her singing.

Tom Blyth, who is quickly becoming an established actor in his own right, also succeeds in depicting Snow’s slow descent into insanity throughout the movie.

The movie is over two and a half hours long, and it’s split into 3 distinct acts. While I do think that the measure of detail is necessary to correctly portray the book. Towards the end of the movie, I did start to feel like it was dragging along while I was fighting to stay awake in the movie theater.

I have seen a lot of negative feedback from the movie about the songs, however, that’s exactly what a ballad is supposed to be. 

While occasionally, the singing does seem out of place for such a serious movie, the music still ultimately adds to the experience. It adds a nice flair that the other movies don’t have. The songs are also exceptionally good, in my opinion. “Nothing you can take from me” is arguably the central tune for the whole story, and probably the most catchy. 

Throughout the film, there are many references to the original Hunger Games trilogy. The foreshadowing of the historic originals is a nice detail to add to keep viewers engaged. Such as, when Lucy Gray mentions that she is going to “go dig up some katniss” which is both a reference to a plant, but also an allusion to Jennifer Lawrence’s memorable portrayal of Katniss Everdeen, the winner of the 74th Hunger Games. 

Overall, this was a very good and well-put-together movie. I would recommend anyone who has not yet watched it to go see it, both for the music and the added lore to the dystopian universe. And if you have no idea what The Hunger Games even is, then you have a lot of catching up to do. Regardless of your thoughts about the Hunger Games going in, I believe that the odds are “ever in your favor” to enjoy this compelling adaptation.