The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was a fantastic movie with a star studded cast. Big names such as Viola Davis, Hunter Schafer, and Peter Dinklage took on their roles with grace while smaller names such as Tom Blythe, Rachel Zegler, and Josh Andrés Rivera shined just as bright. The plot follows President Coriolanus Snow and the time before his presidency. It describes his time as a mentor for the 10th annual Hunger Games while mentoring a traveling singer from district 12 named Lucy Gray Baird as well as the time after his mentoring. 

Visually, the movie was beautiful. It had an interesting use of colors for the scenery as well as using the color of scenes to aid in the general mood of a scene. Another strong stylistic choice was the use of costuming. The costuming was filled with hidden details, beautiful colors, as well as significance for the character arc of each person. Another strong suit of this film was the soundtrack. With songs from Rachel Zegler herself and Olivia Rodrigo, strong vocal performances were sprinkled throughout the film. 

While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie as an objective reviewer, I was slightly disappointed as a Hunger Games series fan. There were large components of the book that were accurate and represented well however, there were large parts of the movie that fell short in comparison to the novel. I felt that aspects of President Snow’s character fell short as well as the presentation of certain aspects of the games. It was difficult to allow myself to truly enjoy some bits of the movie due to these big changes. 

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was, overall, a fun experience. I’m glad I saw it in theaters. I was laughing, gasping, and crying along with everyone else in my theater. I would give this movie 9 mockingjays out of 10 and would recommend this movie to anyone looking for a fun film experience that is guaranteed to take you on a great adventure.