The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Reviews

Through Snow’s journey, we’re reminded of the terrifying escalation that violence incites, and what we lose when apathy and power trample all.

...humanizes Coriolanus Snow for the sole purpose of emphasizing that a man, not some unknowable monster, was responsible for all of this.

It’s another heady mix of teen romance, glamorous frocks, dark comedy, gruesome slayings and social commentary.

“Snow always lands on top” is the longtime credo for Coriolanus and his family. The question of how it falls, and whether it sticks, makes “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” a surprisingly suspenseful prequel.

...sings a pleasingly familiar tune.

It certainly looks terrific.

...return to the YA dystopia in which kids are forced to hunt and kill each other for the entertainment of a privileged ruling class.

...everything fans might want from a Panem revisit is here: state-enforced sadism, complex romance, lofty philosophical notions, wicked politics, genetically enhanced creatures, character names out of a Horrible Histories sketch.

...it’s not actually a young adult (YA) action movie. It’s a fully committed character study with an extended action sequence in the middle.

...a rather triumphant comeback for The Hunger Games franchise that ups the stakes from the original films and dives deeper into the storytelling from a welcome new angle.