Photo IMDb

The official promotional poster for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.”

“The Hunger Games,” first released as a novel in 2008, was an instant hit, spawning an entire franchise consisting of numerous books -the first movie was released in 2012, followed by more films and media. Following the story of Katniss Everdeen’s struggle through a trial known as the Hunger Games, in which children are put against each other to fight to the death in an elaborate televised deathmatch, it catalogs her fight with other selected competitors and, eventually, the president of the fictional country of Panem, Coriolanus Snow.

The newest installment in the movie franchise, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” tells Snow’s backstory, focusing on how he went from a kind-hearted, naive boy to an inhumane and cold-hearted dictator. It gave the Hunger Games a new, sharp feel, with beautiful visuals, complex characters, interesting dialogue and impressive acting; however, the movie overall is a complex mess.

Throughout the film, namely towards the end, I was left wondering why characters acted the way they did. I was confused, lost and at several times mistaken by the direction the film was going. It takes forever to cover key plot points (that two-hour thirty-minute runtime had to come from somewhere) and when it does, they are often unclear, with poor logic behind the character’s actions.

The characters themselves I often did not understand, and their actions seemed messy, indecisive and uncertain; this is especially observed in Snow’s character towards the end of the film, as he frantically runs around a forest yelling and shooting at birds. I momentarily thought he was having some sort of psychotic break. 

Once I began to understand the character’s actions, I was able to refocus on the stellar acting itself. While the performance is good, it was unable to overcome the poor and, at times, difficult to understand writing. Overall, the film is an experience; it is, without a doubt, a much-needed revitalization for the Hunger Games franchise, and an enjoyable installment for fans of the series.