The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes
Everyone hungers for something.
64 years before he becomes the tyrannical president of Panem, Coriolanus Snow sees a chance for a change in fortunes when he mentors Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from District 12.
Wokeness: 20%
Overall Score: 80%
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User Submitted Reviews
Pavel Hristov
This website really needs a cleaner, the film is decent
So first off, to whoever owns this website, please clean the spam, there are now as many actual reviews as spam, if this site is to survive.
The film is okay, I really liked the relationship between Snow and Plinth, up until the very end. The romance between Snow and Lucy Grey was questionable? They never felt like a couple even though we are told/shown they like each other but 5 minutes after they meet up they wanna kiss and then they get together for some reason only having met a couple times and 5 minutes later they separate? Like what the heck. Overall the relationships in this movie were questionable, first characters like each other, then they hate each other in the next scene, it was quite poor to be honest, apart as I said Snow and Plinth's relationship up till the end which was really well done and well acted.
I also like that the film doesn't end on a cliffhanger, they could have split the movie in two but thankfully they didn't, the story is told through and through.
What I didn't like was mild wokeness, occasional profanities and the singing of Rachel Zeglar which really pulls you out of the movie. Imagine watching an action movie that spontaneously becomes a musical from time to time, again, what the heck? Zegler has good voice, if she's the one actually singing, it's just two genres of film which should not mix together, even if there's in-movie logic they do. They also have a retarded character who somehow survives up until the end, obviously they couldn't kill her early or the wo(o)kies would cry foul but that was stupid. Also Rachel Zeglar manages to pull a 200kg beam in one of the scenes, they had to think something better if they wanted to solidify their relationship rather than this stupidity. But worst of all, the show is about the protagonist - Coriolanus Snow who flip flops between being a good and bad character all the time. In one scene he kills his friend, in the next he weeps for him and in the scene right after he's back to his friend being means to an end. I understand the director of the film wanted to make him multi-dimensional but he/she failed. We have 2 characters in 1 body and it's completely random which character the producers will use in the next scene and the protagonist comes out feeling disjointed.
Overall, aside from mild wokeness, the film is interesting and the main actor is quite decent at his job, so is the actor playing Plinth and even Rachel Zeglar puts out a good performance. If they improved the protagonist, this movie could have been a 5/5. Unfortunately for the producers, we were 4 people in an IMAX, very young people (14-25) have not shown up for it which are the main audience and it was only people who also watched the originals who came and we're not that many (26-35) so this film will likely flop.
Created: 11-21-2023
Andre Santamaria
Good movie, arguably better than several others in the franchise.
No obvious wokeness. Yes, there was a trans actor in the film, but his gender identity wasn’t highlighted at all in the movie, and it really wasn’t relevant to the film. The acting was good, and the character of Snow in particular, was a well-written character with a depth uncommon in modern cinema.
Created: 12-03-2023
Blake
Just look at the casting
Women and minorities dominate the cast. In this ridiculous movie women are capable of beating men single handedly. Wokeness aside, this movie sucks. Its a blatant cash grab trying to wring every last dollar out of a franchise that ended years ago.
Created: 12-27-2023
Michaels
The Sound of Music
This is a prequel showing a young Snow long before he became President. The most amazing thing about this movie is the singing of Rachel Zegler. Yes, she did all the singing of her character, Lucy. If the singing bothers you, remember that this movie's style harkens back to the early to mid 1900's, when singing was common in movies. The actress is half Columbian, half European (mostly Polish). I judge no DEI here; she was clearly hired on the basis of merit. The actress herself is woke, but I will ignore that.
You might think it is woke to have a black woman play a professor who is also Head Gamesmaster and Head of the Department of Military Genetic Engineering and Bioweapons Research. I admit that is laying it on a bit thick. However, crucially, the character is evil. Evil mad scientist roles are nearly always given to old, bald white men. Wokeness would dictate that a black woman not receive an evil role. So, I tentatively judge this not woke.
There is a trans actor. This biologically male (but female-identifying) actor plays Tigris, who by the time of Mockingjay Part 2 has surgically implanted cat whiskers and other "clown" modifications. In reviews of earlier movies in the franchise, I argued that men wearing make-up in the capital does not mean the movie itself is woke, because the capital is supposed to be a woke clown world. A transfemale transtiger fits perfectly there. However, in the books the Tigris character was a biological female, and probably is intended as such in the movie. So, I will throw a woke flag for using a trans to play a biological woman.
The relationship between jabberjays and mockingjays escaped me or perhaps was only fully detailed in the books. Here is what I later learned. The government created a genetically engineered species, jabberjays, to spy for them. Jabberjays were all males to prevent "unauthorized breeding", like in Jurassic Park. However, in the wild they interbred with mockingbirds, creating a new hybrid species, the mockingjay. Unlike jabberjays, mockingjays can also repeat songs. This highlighted the fallibility of the government, and thus the mockingjay became a symbol of rebellion.
Overall, it's very enjoyable and better than all the other Hunger Games movies except the first. The anti-authoritarian theme of the entire series is anti-woke.
Created: 04-19-2024
