“The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” gives fans what the first four “Hunger Games” films lacked, the background on the evil of Panem.
After an eight-year hiatus, the franchise returns with a new movie, taking the audience back to the 10th Hunger Games ever held in the dystopian society.
When we first get introduced to the antagonist, Coriolanus Snow, in the first movie, we see an old, evil man with long white hair and a beard. Seeing him as an 18-year-old boy gives off a different feeling.
It’s easy to root against Snow when he’s overseeing a game that kills children from each district every year, but seeing him as a young and innocent man makes him more likable.
Going into the film, I already knew what Snow would become, but the movie does an excellent job at making you root for him not to go down the path that is inevitable.
Snow gets assigned to be a mentor for the tribute Lucy Gray from District 12 during the 10th Hunger Games.
If that sounds familiar, it’s because Katniss Everdeen, the protagonist in the first four films, is from that very district.
Snow does everything in his power to make sure Gray comes out alive, even cheating to achieve this by giving her a compact to store rat poison.
While she does live through the games due to his efforts, Snow gets caught for cheating and is punished to the extreme, getting exiled to District 12 for 20 years.
In a turn of events, Gray ends up betraying Snow in the forest as we hear the classic “Hanging Tree” song that was iconic in the previous films.
Becoming the final straw for Snow, he is brought back to the capitol with the full intention of progressing the very games he fought against.
Snow delivers one of the most bone-chilling lines that he made in “Mockingjay: Part One” over footage of younger Snow.
“It’s the things we love the most that destroy us.”
I thought the direction the filmmakers took to make Snow feel like the good guy was brilliant.
Watching Snow transition from completely against the games and in love with Gray to heartbroken and vengeful was a perfect way to show how Snow became who he is known to be.
Prequels are meant to tie things together, and while there are still many uncertainties in the world of “The Hunger Games,” I felt as if this installment added great background to the overall story.
