Two hours and 37 minutes is pretty long for a 鈥渂allad,鈥� but you can鈥檛 call it 鈥淭he Hunger Games: The Three-Cycle Opera of Songbirds and Snakes鈥� now, can you?
Concision was never much in favor in the four 鈥淗unger Games鈥� films, which reached a seeming finale with 2015鈥檚 鈥淭he Hunger Games: Mockingjay 鈥� Part 2.鈥� The intervening years have done nothing to shrink the ambitions of this unapologetically gaudy dystopic series where the brutal deaths of kids are watched over by outrageously styled Capitol denizens with names like Effie Trinket.
That clash of YA allegory and color palette is just as pronounced, if not more so, in 鈥淭he Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,鈥� a prequel set 64 years before the original books, adapted from Suzanne Collins鈥�
which opens in theaters Nov. 16, is an origin story of the Hunger Games, themselves, as well as numerous characters 鈥� primarily the devious President Coriolanus Snow, played by Donald Sutherland in the first four films. Here, Snow is an impoverished but opportunistic 18-year-old student played by Tom Blyth.
Just as in the 鈥淗unger Games鈥� films led by Jennifer Lawrence鈥檚 Katniss Everdeen, the new one proves how much you can sacrifice in story when you鈥檝e got a thrilling young performer commanding the screen.
Francis Lawrence鈥檚 prequel often wobbles, especially in the early going. And yet, in the end, 鈥淭he Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,鈥� propelled by Blyth鈥檚 performance, manages to be the deepest expression yet of the series鈥� melodrama of adolescence. In Panem, the only thing more tragic than the suffering inflicted by adults on the young may be a bright kid warping wickedly into one of those elders, too.
That generational divide was always at the heart of the appeal of 鈥淭he Hungers Games,鈥� a fantasy where no adult or institution can be trusted, and the normal pressures of teendom are amplified in a modern, televised Roman Coliseum 鈥� an 鈥淎merican Idol鈥� with murder 鈥� concocted by elders. It鈥檚 madness shrugged off as, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just the way it is.鈥�
In 鈥淭he Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,鈥� we see how it got to be that way. The 10th annual Hunger Games are approaching but it feels more like pre-Super Bowl times when the NFL and the AFL played in separate leagues. The broadcast is low rent, the ratings are poor and the games themselves are staged in a dilapidated stadium.
With little food in the fridge, Coriolanus is living with his cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer) and grandmother (Fionnula Flanagan). Their family has fallen on hard times, in part because of a family rivalry with Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage), the dean of the academy who harbors hatred for the Snows. (Dinklage, whose wry presence adds a kick to the film, has managed to appear once again in )
As the students gather amid Third Reich architectures (the production design by Uli Hanisch is stellar) and the games鈥� founder Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis, majestic in blue, with a turquoise eye) gazes on, Coriolanus is assigned his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird, a bold young woman from District 12 (also the home of Katniss) who wears a rainbow skirt and sports a dubious Southern accent. During the reaping ceremony, she makes an immediate impression, putting a snake down the back of a rival and bursting into song for the cameras. See, now there鈥檚 concision, I thought. You get your songbird and snake, straight off.
Lawrence鈥檚 Katniss was a thrilling female warrior whose seizing of center stage had reverberations off screen, paving the way for blockbuster female protagonists. Rachel Zegler's Lucy Gray is inevitably a disappointment by comparison. Lawrence鈥檚 film, scripted by Michael Arndt and Michael Lesslie, for a while has the stale feeling of an unneeded retread. The tonal fluctuations, always a tricky balance in Panem, can be ridiculous. The stadium is abruptly bombed by unseen rebels. Once the games begin, one tribute concocts rabies.
The main thing holding our attention at this point is Jason Schwartzman鈥檚 Lucretius Flickerman, a TV host with a Salvador Dali mustache who wants the games wrapped up just so he can make his dinner reservations. (It鈥檚 been a very good year for Schwartzman, who and transmogrified in )
But 鈥淪ongbirds and Snakes鈥� sneakily begins making a case for itself. The relationship between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray is compellingly complex. He works desperately to help her survive the games because he believes in her, and maybe loves her, but also because her success benefits him, too. Whether Lucy Gray is as purehearted as her songs, too, is up for debate. Both, we sense, are cunningly playing the hands they鈥檝e been delt, seeking an advantage where they can. When Coriolanus begins making suggestions for the games to Volumnia, he proves himself a natural-born marketer.
That there鈥檚 tension in Coriolanus鈥� character, considering we know how he ultimately ends up, is a tribute to just how good Blyth is. We've by now seen plenty of prequels that show us how some famous villain broke bad, but there's nothing in Blyth's performance that telegraphs his future. He's a sincere striver 鈥� we root for him because of his poverty and his puck 鈥� who's operating in the society he's found himself. He's a villain born entirely of circumstance.
鈥淭he Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes鈥� extends the saga for a third act that takes places in District 12, an addition that another franchise might have saved for the next installment. But it's also where that tragedy of 鈥淭he Hunger Games," and Coriolanus' fate, earns some of the Shakespearean touches that have liberally been sprinkled throughout. (Shakespeare's 鈥淐oriolanus," is likewise about an ambiguous warrior set amid times of famine and class struggle.)
鈥淭he Hunger Games鈥� kicked off a YA craze in film that had its ups and downs but petered out several years ago. Whether 鈥淭he Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" is enough to relight those embers remains to be seen, but it is a reminder how good a platform they offered young actors. It's a ritual worth returning to.
鈥淭he Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,鈥� a Lionsgate release is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for strong violent content and disturbing material. Running time: 157 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
Jake Coyle, The Associated Press
