Everyone is very pretty and very hungry in the new Hunger Games prequel trailer
The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes brings us (and Peter Dinklage, Viola Davis, Jason Schwartzman, and more) back to the dystopia of Panem
Aux News Films
It’s been 8 years since The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part Two hit theaters, bringing the story of Katniss Everdeen and the Hunger Games to a (very mutedly) positive conclusion. But just like those well-dressed psychopaths in the Capitol, moviegoers have still got a taste for killing games and flashy spectacle, and so here we are: Feasting on the new trailer for Hunger Games prequel project The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes, rolled out at CinemaCon earlier today.
And while the plot of the film is a bit hard to parse from the trailer—readers of Suzanne Collins’ 2020 source novel will presumably have a better grasp on all this—the basic principles of a Hunger Games movie are still clearly in play: Pretty youngsters killing each other for the delight of well-heeled monsters, with rebellion bubbling up at the edges. Our central characters this time are Lucy (Rachel Zegler), a tribute in the upcoming 10th games, and Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), a Capitol resident assigned as her mentor—and who is still decades away from transforming into a fascist-chic Donald Sutherland from the original films.
Meanwhile, the series sticks to another one of its core principles: Hiring damn fine performers to play the grown-ups in the room, with Viola Davis and Peter Dinklage as the architects of the current games. (Meanwhile, only Jason Schwartzman seems to be having any actual fun as Lucky Flickerman, a weatherman and “amateur magician” who serves as the film’s resident Stanley Tucci stand-in.) All the hallmarks are here, in other words: Pretty locations, pretty people, pretty little murders. (They even manage to work Rue’s four-note song right there in the ending.)
The Ballad Of Songbirds And Snakes—mouthful of a title, by the way—arrives in theaters on November 17.
22 Comments
The films, like the books, were really kind of a diminishing returns kind of thing. By the end they felt like real slogs. Didn’t read the prequel because I assumed it was probably further down that path. Was it any good or just more of the same?
For what it was, it was fine, though it suffered from the same Suzanne Collins “shit I have to end the book so let’s bang. this. out. in five pages” denouement. It’s an interesting window into the Games back when no one watched them and when the rewards weren’t there for the tributes, and it further expands on how the Capitol didn’t exactly have it so great after the war, either. That being said, if you heard a song or were introduced to a concept from the original series (Hanging Tree, anyone? That former stylist that got the cat cosmetic surgery? Don’t worry- she’s related to an Important Person!), it’s absolutely shoehorned into this origin story.
For what it was, it was fine, though it suffered from the same Suzanne Collins “shit I have to end the book so let’s bang. this. out. in five pages” denouement. That’s the perfect way to put it.I read the original three, and could not fucking tell you how it all ended, because the ending was forgettable.
It was okay. It’s a bit weird because I always imagined Snow himself creating the whole dystopian culture with the Games, but it turns out that the whole thing was that way before he was even born. Imagine if it the Star Wars prequels revealed that the Empire was around in Anakin’s youth and he simply rose in power in an already existing structure rather than playing a part in creating it.
I found the last book interesting largely because despite being yet another retread it was a fairly accurate portrayal of someone with actual PTSD shortly before PTSD became watered down as the preferred self diagnosed mental illness of Gen Z. Come to think of it, I now wonder if those two developments may have been linked.Unfortunately, I didn’t find the prequel at all worthwhile. Young Snow isn’t particularly compelling as a character, nor is his love interest, nor the twist of who is supporting the Districts/Capitol, and the rehashing of a good part of the same plot for the fourth time just kind of falls flat. And as Deedlit notes, the shoehorning gets to the point of being ridiculous.It’s also written as more or less a screenplay, so I wouldn’t expect much improvement in the adaptation.
At some point it was like, “EVERYTHING doesn’t have to be related to be meaningful, you know?” Fired cat lady stylist could just have a beef with Snow because he fried her, not some deep reason. A song could just be a song that is connected to absolutely no one of meaning. Maybe we could go to one of the other 11 districts and see how they live and operate for once. Ceasar Flickerman could just have been a really great MC without having to be related to commentators. And sue me, but I’m of the camp that thinks it would have been better if all of the memorable architecture of the Games WASN’T Snow’s doing. That being said, it’s designed to make an audience of teens say “OMG that’s the Thing!” and in that it was successful.
The top screen grab could not possibly look sillier. Surely this is from a HS production of the Taming of the Shrew.
Drama teacher “Look at her like she’s a steak and you’re fucking starving!”
Well, the male lead appears to be played by Bob Geldof, who was a figurehead for starvation in the 80s. May as well make use of his field of expertise if it’s there.
Yes! Yes! That’s it. I could not figure out who he looked like
Thank you! I couldn’t figure out who he reminded me of!
I definitely thought that was Keira Knightley and this was a stealth Pirates sequel.
I was thinking, “What if Willy Wonka went to Star Fleet Academy?” with the way that dude looks.
It looks like a parody of Hunger Games. For their sake, I hope those images are not indicative of all of the costume design in the movie.
Isn’t that the bad guy from Top Secret? He hasn’t aged a day!
The difference in the parents who named their kids Lucy vs. Coriolanus. ffs…
Kid looks a lot like Donald Sutherland
Hmm, looks more like Richard E. Grant, to me.
I thought he was one of the lesser known Dr. Who’s.
Jesus, that ‘Snow falling’ line was freaking hopeless.
Coriolanus Snow, Lucky Flickerman
GTFO with those stupid-ass names.
These titles are dumb.
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