A young college student named Coriolanus Snow (played by Tom Blyth) is headed to The Capitol to mentor one of the District tributes in the upcoming Hunger Games. Viewership of the Games is down so the gamemaster, Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), finds herself open to ideas on how to improve the ratings. Snow writes up a proposal and Dr. Gaul finds value in his suggestions, implementing the changes immediately. Meanwhile, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) is a District 12 rebel whose assigned to Snow. When Dr. Gaul announces that the winning mentor will earn a high-ranking spot at The Capitol, Snow pulls out all the stops in attempts to build trust with Lucy Gray by sneaking into the zoo where the tributes are kept, bringing her food so she has strength during the Games and even slipping her some rat poison to use on her fellow tributes whenever the appropriate time comes. The two seemingly fall for each other but Snow is warned by his grandmother (Fionnula Flanagan) that Lucy Gray “will use you. So use her.” Chaos ensues inside the arena, Lucy Grey is the lone survivor and Snow is eventually crowned the winning mentor. He doesn’t earn the promised status upgrade however, instead he’s punished for cheating and sent to work a peacekeeping job in District 12. While fulfilling his military commitment there, he’s surprised to find Lucy Gray still alive.
Typically, when a prequel movie is made — especially when trying to capitalize on a highly successful book series — it’s a money grab for the studios. It does the soul good that this is very much not that. An excellent contribution to The Hunger Games theatrical saga, Songbirds & Snakes brings a drama that’s palpable throughout the film. The stakes are high and the audience can feel that every step of the way. Other than her accent dropping out every once in a while, Zegler is outstanding and proves that the shine she showed in Shazam! Fury of the Gods wasn’t fool’s gold. Her performance in this movie solidifies her as the next superstar in the making.
As far as other performances go, Peter Dinklage and Viola Davis are outstanding (to nobody’s surprise) but it’s not all home runs for the casting directors. Josh Andrés Rivera stole every scene he was in and carried himself (or, rather, his character) with such believability that I couldn’t help but think Rivera should be playing Snow and Blyth should be playing the supporting role of Sejanus Plinth. Don’t get me wrong, Blyth is solid in the role. But Rivera had a charisma on screen that was clearly being suppressed to make room for the lead.
Songbirds & Snakes may have had three parts but it felt like two movies. Once the Games ended, it truly felt like they could’ve rolled credits and it’s sequel could’ve picked up right there with Snow being assigned to the Districts and Plinth going with him and the search for Lucy Grey, etc. I’m not usually one to yearn for the studios breaking up a film just so they make twice the money at the box office but, in this specific case, they could’ve done it and it would’ve felt natural. Instead, we got this 2.5 hour commitment where the first two parts were clearly better than the third.
All in all, Songbirds & Snakes is worth your time. You don’t have to have seen the original four movies and that may be its best quality. If you love the originals, this will only stoke your Hunger Games fire. But if you’ve never seen the originals, you can still take it in as a stand-alone film and really enjoy yourself. In other words, it’s the best kind of prequel.
JKG SCORE: 7.0
Untitled Film Project 