The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Panem is such a fascinating world, and the base writing of Suzanne Collins lends itself to such a politically rife and relevant story. Whereas the first trilogy feels a lot more interested in unpacking the commodification of war and violence to control the masses and the disonnance between wealth and war, this film is more insular and seeks to unpack Snow as a character and his philosophies. Granted themes of war and classism are still noticeable as well.

The first two acts of the film are wonderful. Really tightly written, paced so well and has just such perfect development for Snow and Lucy Gray. I think the film falters in its third act. It feels very disjointed, and doesn't really align with the previous two. A pace is set for the character's development, in particular Snow, which is just abandoned and rushed in the third act. It just feels out of place, clearly this is where his character was going to head, and so was Lucy Gray's, but it rushed to this conclusion.

I have to comend the performances. This was an ensemble. I was so fascinated by everyone. Viola Davis and Josh Andrés Rivera did a lot with little screentime, managed to make such small characters as intruiging to watch as the main. Jason Schwartzman is possibly the MVP, every single line delivery was iconic and so funny. Standouts are clearly Rachel Zegler and Tom Blythe. Zegler plays an incredibly hard role with ease. Since Lucy Gray is such a performer, I think it easily could've been cheesy but she was so believable and sold most of the songs in the film, some of which is so weirdly placed. Blythe is unbelievable. Feels destined to lead a blockbuster film, just truly captivating and added a lot of nuance to his character.

Will say the writing was a little spotty in places, not really complaining as it lead to some really funny scenes and some brilliant edits online, but it did break emersion slightly. Otherwise techincally this was possibly oen of the more creative blockbusters to come out since the previous trilogy. Such intricate production design, being in a dystopian world but it being historical and how that influenced the retrofuturism was sublime. If anything though I just really appreciate a blockbuster like this coming out with such a strong message and actually leaves you with something to think about instead of just being mindless