“It's the things we love most, that destroy us."
When “The Hunger Games” first premiered over a decade ago, the YA dystopian series became a pop culture phenomenon and launched Jennifer Laweence (“Passengers,” ”American Hustle,” “X-Men: First Class”) into super stardom from her girl on fire role, heroin Katniss Everdeen. When I traveled to San Francisco and Atlanta, I visited the magnificent exhibition and mansion. I also attended the Comic-Con panel and talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien in San Diego with the stars in attendance.
What makes the “Hunger Games” series intriguing for me was the political allegory, social commentary and moral quandary the series represent. The great disparity between the haves and the have-nots, and the powerful and the powerless; prosperity and poverty, freedom and oppression, power and despair.
When the series concluded, it seemed like that was the last time we'd ever see that kind of battle royale world-building and setting, the worlds of tyrannical Panem and tyrannized Districts, where Districts' children and teens are picked at random every year and sent to fight to the death as an inhuman punishment in the name of honor for their failed rebellion, where there could only be one survivor. With District residents divided and dehumanized, it shows the Capitol's ultimate power, which also squashes the possibility of another uprising.
As it turns out, there's still much story to tell. “Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” tells the backstory of the center villain in the series, Coriolanus Snow (Donald Sutherland), the President of Panem, and the early days of the Hunger Games. 'Songbirds and Snakes' is set over 60 years ago, when Snow (Tom Blythe) was a young man.
The film opens even earlier, a few years prior the first of the Hunger Games' creation and the aftermath of the war in the Capitol. The Snow family fell from grace during the war and Coriolanus witnessed an unimaginably gruesome act that shows the horrors of humanity. After the death of his father, a general during the war, Coriolanus was left to live with his older cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer) and grandmother.
In his last year of the Academy, which coincides with the 10th year of the Hunger Games, viewership has dropped and people aren't watching. In an effort to boost ratings, snake-obsessed and delightfully devilish Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis; “Air,” “Ender's Game”) collaborates with morphling-addicted and morbid Hunger Games creator and Dean Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage) require all final year students to each mentor a tribute picked from every district to fight to the death in the lethal game. The dean had a tainted history with Coriolanus' father.
That is a main requirement to graduate, instead of stellar grades. And the winner will be awarded the Plinth Prizes, massive monetary rewards, which Coriolanus sorely needs for the University, his family and maintains their status as the Capitol elitists.
At the Reaping Ceremony, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) from District 12 is one of the 24 names or tributes picked for the Hunger Games. In a rainbow-colored ruffled skirt, plucky Lucy slithers and sings her way out of the crowd, making her a siren standout from the start, and is in contrast with the pious Katniss. At the same time, she's also loyal and compassionate. Coriolanus is assigned to be Lucy's mentor. Tigris tries to be a good influence to conflicted Coriolanus, and for a while, it works.
It could be said that Coriolanus needs Lucy to win the game so he can win the prizes and Lucy needs Coriolanus to stay and come out alive. At the same time, they also bond instantly and there's some level of genuine care. There are shocking moments from the moment they are thrown in together prior to the game.
Another key character here is Sejanus Plinth (Jose Andres Rivera), Coriolanus' best friend. Sejanus was born and raised in District 2, but when his family accumulated wealth through weapon manufacturing during the war, they were able to move to the Capitol. He's never felt like he belongs there, however, and was the first to question the ethics of the Hunger Games. And tragically, he also knows the tribute assigned to him, who happens to come from District 2.
Coriolanus, charming yet cunning, strategizes that viewership would increase if they get to know the tributes better, as human beings to root for and against. When tributes do something or perform for spectacle that grabs the snooty Capitol residents' attention, they would be get sponsors, showering them with gifts or donations, such as water or weapons, and therefore could likely increase their odds at survival.
The centerpiece of the film, the Hunger Games itself, hosted by the comically callous Lucretius Flickerman (Jason Schwartzman), is bare bones here. A concrete gladiator arena, no fancy forest or tropical island camouflage. No intense fitness or fight training. No stylish outfits or bountiful banquets.
The trapped and terrified youngsters remain in plain and dirty clothes, some are malnourished or diseased, are literally thrown in the arena as savages with nothing. They literally are left to fend for themselves with rocks, knives, axes or pitchforks. These kids are running, chasing, hiding, hanging, falling, tumbling, stabbing, crushing one another. The attacks and deaths are brutal and horrific.
There's a particularly chilling scene involving snakes slowly piling and curling up, enveloping a tribute and the ending could go either way. This is also the point where Coriolanus realizes that winning doesn't necessarily mean surviving. The odds will never be in their favor.
At nearly three hours, the movie feels overlong, and when you think it might end, it goes on, almost like it could be split into another chapter. It's needed though, to see Coriolanus' continued transformation and turning points into the merciless man and ruthless ruler in the trilogy.
Controlling desire for power and privilege, fractured friendship, broken burgeoning romance, betrayal, grief, paranoia, anger, deception and destruction lead Coriolanus down the pathological path of no return. It would be interesting to see his tyrannous rise to the highest power in the land.
Strong performances, melancholic melodies, psychologically twisted storytelling, boldly biting scenes, fantastic aesthetics and production value make 'Songbirds and Snakes' a vigorously engrossing and victorious return of “The Hunger Games.”
