Danha SanchezThe Hunger Games franchise dropped its newest movie “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” on Nov. 17, and it sucked. Eight years later we were gifted with a prequel that felt like a never-ending musical, when all I wanted to see was people killing each other.
This movie was based on President Snow’s life before he became the president of Panem, back when he was good and somewhat likable. In this year’s games, Cornelius Snow was randomly selected to become the mentor for District 12’s female tribute Lucy Gray, who by the way has a punchable face.
This movie is broken down into three different parts, each of them longer than they should have been. Honestly speaking, once I realized what was happening I did not want to sit through it. The only reason that helped me push through was the scene where Snow was shown shirtless with a buzz cut.
In one of the parts, when Lucy Gray is in the arena and is about to be eaten by snakes, she straight up starts singing to the snakes, like girl no… stop, please.
There are a lot of mixed feelings throughout the movie, starting with feeling pity for Snow, liking him a little, to hating him even more. The plot twits showed that this version of the Hunger Games becomes a more personal issue between Cornelius Snow and the audience, I have been and will always be beefing with him.
The movie gives a more personal perspective of what the character of Cornelius Snow went through. We are able to see his character develop from good to evil, giving the audience more understanding as to why he became one of the most hated characters in the franchise.
From suffering the death of both his parents, the betrayal of his first and only love, (Lucy Gray) and his best friend driving him to make choices that affected Panem which was, at the time, turning into an unfair form of government, like it wasn’t already… people were literally eating rats in the beginning.
“The Ballad of the Songbirds and Snakes” is the missing link all fans and non-fans needed to get a better understanding of why they thought it was a good idea to televise the Hunger Games. Although I wasn’t expecting any singing to happen in the movie, it still delivered the message it wanted to send, which was that Snow has always been a selfish asshole.
With 65% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this movie accurately delivered details from Suzane Collins’ novel, but I did not like how they were referencing characters from the other movies, like they weren’t even born yet, by taking Katniss’s iconic bow as well as naming an arrowhead plant “Katniss.”
This movie made me feel like I was aging while watching it. Now I understand why Snow randomly started beefing with Katniss. It reminded him of Lucy Gray, gross.
I just want to see Peeta.
