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Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Review

C G
December 13, 2023

This weeks thoughts:

I watched The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and obviously had to do a full review!! 🐍🤍

REVIEW:

SNOW: I have to start off with THE Coriolanus Snow. In the original trilogy I was never particularly interested in Snow and even after the prequel novel I still never really cared about him, HOWEVER, after the amazing portrayal in TBOSAS, Snow is now one of my favourite villains of all time!! He is such an interesting character and the movie really highlighted how he is a master of manipulation and power. Tom Blyth did such a good job in portraying the charming and psychotic parts of Snow by bringing the characters inner monologue and paranoia from the novel into his acting and in each of the 3 parts of the film, you could see his character transform into the villain he became to be. He also balanced out his role in making Snow feel like the same person from the older movies, while still making it his own.

LUCY GRAY: Although Lucy Gracy was a lil cringy and cliché at times, I think Rachel Zegler did a wonderful job in making her feel exactly like the Lucy from the novel.

SET AND COSTUME DESIGN:

Lucy Gray’s dress = 100/10, it was so beautiful and better than I pictured it in the book
Snow’s outfits were servinggg, special mention to the buzz cut 🫶🫶
The set was somehow retro and modern at the same time, and it felt so perfect for what I imagine a dystopian 2312 world to look like
Dr Gaul’s costumes + lab were especially cool and fit her character so well omg
Lucky Flickerman’s filming studio is ON POINT and ties back so well to Caesar Flickerman (the ultimate nepo baby) from the main trilogy

SOUNDTRACK:

Getting Hanging Tree (Lucy Gray’s Version) filled a need in my soul that I never new existed. Knowing that Lucy wrote this song about Snow and that 60 years later Katniss (#swamppotato) sings this as a resistance song against him is so wild and adds a whole new layer to Snow’s character
Rachel Zegler is so good at singing and the Southern drawl added to the world building so well
After watching this movie, Can’t Catch Me Now hits so different and has sky rocketed to one of my on repeat fave songs

THE VIEWING EXPERIENCE: Even through it was a 2hr 40 min movie you could not tell. In fact, whenever you thought the movie might end, IT JUST KEPT GIVING. And although it had such a heavy story line, the surprising comedy balanced the intensity perfectly, making it so gorgeous to watch.

Shout out to the bow from Lucy Gray that was the same as Katniss’s bow (IYKYK), it gave me an out of body full circle fandom experience.

P.S. Seeing it the day it premiered and sitting in a full cinema of people was also such an amazing experience; it felt like Hunger Games fandom had come back in full force 🫡.

OVERALL:

EVERYTHING was perfect. I never thought I’d ever say that a movie was better than the book but the adaption was so well done!! The cinematography and acting is *chefs kiss* and the audience truely get to see the downfall of Coriolanus Snow by being sucked right back into the world of the Hunger Games.

My only wish is that the romance had been a bit stronger, not just for my fangirl heart, but to make Snow’s downfall even more tragic (his love for power/control is stronger than his love for Lucy). Other than that I adored this movie and have already watched it twice 🫶🫶😭. If you have read the books or are familiar with the Hunger Games franchise you will loveee this movie smm and I would highly recommend!!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️