On November 17, Theaters released “Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”, the long anticipated prequel to its mid-2000s franchise. “The Hunger Games”, originally a book series, is a North American dystopia split into 13 districts. The thirteenth district was destroyed in the “dark days”, a time when the districts rebelled against the capitol, resulting in a time of poverty and famine throughout the districts and the capitol. The future president, Coriolanus Snow, was just three years old at the time of the dark days and his father served as a public figure who helped bring the hunger games to life as a way to keep the districts from rebelling. When Snow is 18 years old, and in an elite academy in the capitol years after his fathers death, Snow finds himself facing the games as a mentor for the female tribute from District 12.
Snow finds himself falling in love with the tribute Lucy Gray and cheating in a number of ways to make sure she survives. Because of his dishonesty, now is sent to district 12 to become a peacekeeper, an ironically named police force that keeps order, using whatever violent tactics necessary. Through his time in district 12, Snow spends more and more time with Gray, falling more and more in love with her, while slowly growing more paranoid and resentful of those close to him.
This movie is an imperative origin story, that shows Snow’s descent into madness and highlights that he was once was a boy who struggled just as Katniss had. And now he sees his love reflected years later in Katniss, which caused the resentment viewers are familiar with from the earlier trilogy. Many of the characters over the years face hardships at the hands of Snow, but this movie gives the audience context for why Snow does the things he does.
The movie, though made eight years after the last movie, was unexpectedly good. When there is a large gap in movie sagas, it can lead to a disconnect between the original story and the additional story the writers create. However, Snow, though younger and not the same villain we see in the previous movies, is still the same man that has yet to adopt the mannerisms we see in the older version of Snow.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” was a quality movie that truly took the word prequel to heart. It shows viewers why the dystopia is the way it is later on in the fictional universe. Anyone who has watched the original movies should watch “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” as Katniss’ entire world is affected by the things Snow went through, especially with the parallels the movie presents between Katniss and Gray. It is imperative to the storyline to watch the newest movie, not only for how it lays the foundation for future films, but because it is one of, if not the best, movie in the Hunger Games series.
