The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

"Not as good as the ‘originals’ but still pretty good. The plot is before the other movies so there’s definitely the correlation of the characters. Like Tigress being younger and before her everything else. It was kinda cheesy in the romance which was annoying to me but overall, good movie. I waited over two years for this film to be released, so my expectations were pretty high! 😂 I knew it wasn’t going to be as good as the originals but it’s still worth watching. #hungergames"

"I don’t think that Francis Lawrence is capable of making a bad Hunger Games adaptation and this movie just proved it. It hit every single jaw dropping moment right on the money. Tom Blyth was a revelation as Snow. He had a hard act to follow in trying to emulate Donald Sutherland while also bringing a glimpse of humanity to the character, but he did it and then some. I can’t wait to see him shine in Hollywood. His constant scene partner, Rachel Zegler, was absolutely mesmerizing as Lucy Gray. It felt like she jumped straight out of the book. Her voice, which is always pitch perfect, was enchanting and brought a haunting, mysterious element to the film’s songs. Besides Rachel and Tom, the standouts in terms of acting were definitely Josh Rivera, Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage. Josh was such a lovable tragic hero as Sejanus. I hope this film catapults his career because he is truly talented. Viola Davis was genius, as per usual, as the maniacally evil Dr. Gaul. She had this ever present unstable look in her eye that made you uneasy every time she was on screen that simultaneously captivating. Peter Dinklage, despite having less screen time than I anticipated, delivered a stirring performance as Highbottom and his one liners were some of the best moments of the film. Another notable performance was that of Hunter Schafer as Tigris. She did great, but I will say, in my opinion, she could have done better. I don’t know if it was a purposeful acting choice, but she whispered in almost every scene she was in and it bugged me. I know what she is capable of acting wise and this wasn’t her best. Besides the acting, the cinematography was gorgeous and the score was epic and suspenseful in a way that made me feel like I was reading the book all over again. This film was really a home run for Lionsgate. I am reentering my 2012 Hunger Games fan girl era once more as we speak. "

"Rather disjointed story. There is not quite enough in the games themselves which are more primitive but equally brutal. The origin story of President Snow seems a bit simplistic to me. A simple betrayal is all it takes to divert him to cruelty. "

"Really enjoyed the movie. The production style was just as good as previous Hunger Games movies. Portrays the book well. I hated the ending in both the book and the movie though, in true Suzanne Collins fashion. "

"snow lands on top"

"Although this film was not as good as the original it was still pretty good. I feel like the storylines got a bit muddled but overall I liked getting to see the origins of the hunger games and how the world and the games have drastically evolved. If you like the hunger games movies this is definitely worth a watch."

"Originally, I rated this a 3/5 but I went back and watched it again and can't stop thinking about the characters especially Snow (obviously). Really makes you think about how people will act with power or to gain it and if power is even worth it in the end. I think I liked this movie better then the "original" ones. 4/5- but Rachel Zeglers voice is still a 10/10. "

"First DNF in decades, as far as movies go. Between the horrible southern accent that comes and goes at a moments notice and the bad acting I couldn't push through. Even the great Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage couldn't save this one. "

"This movie was very good. I'm giving it 4 stars because it did have absolutely too much singing. I loved Snow's origin story. It actually made me like his future self less. He should have been better and he should have understood struggles more. I did not read the prequel book although I did read the others."

"Normally, with book adaptations, I don't like watching them more than once a year/month/whatever specified amount of time. Basically, I don't want to watch it multiple times in a row. That's not the case for this movie. My friends & I watched this 4 times in theaters. It was incredibly compelling & interesting to watch. I enjoyed seeing the world building, the multitude of characters, & the variety in plotlines expanding & abruptly stopping. All of it made me want to wonder what would happen next. (Didn't read the book because I knew they'd make a movie & I wanted to watch the movie before reading the book) For my book fans, my friend read all the books, adores them all, & studies them meticulously. She approves of this movie. It's not a perfect adaptation as she puts it but it works well as a movie. Some parts are missing as expected but she thinks they did it justice. It's also beyond cool and jarring to see how the earlier hunger games went about things. Just how vastly different the world is back then to what we know when Katniss comes about. Especially since the main character is the big bad in our original series that this one prequels. The movie is split into three parts. All of them serving their own purpose. You may not enjoy every part but they show his life & dissent into villainhood with incredible finesse & vivid detail. You watch him shift from every part into being the President Snow we know in the original series. You'll constantly forget who he is throughout due to this too. So well done. I highly recommend to all fans of hunger games, book or movie related. Sadly, I cannot say if you watch this before watching/reading the original series you'll enjoy or know what's going on as everyone I know who watched it did one of those. However, it covers things well without force feeding you information so it should work no matter if you never heard of hunger games, loved the series, read the books, or remember the hunger games fondly from when they came out."