The Ballad of Songbirds And Snakes is a solid movie, it's an adaptation of the book of the same name and does a lovely job of following the source material. The storyline as one might guess follows the books, which is the 10th annual hunger games and the point at which they really turn the hunger games into a show, a spectacle with rewards for the victors. As already said the movie follows the books pretty closely so in terms of story all I can say is well done there. They had the source material and they followed it. The only negative I have is them skipping some important parts especially for those like me who've read the book and wonder where the heck did that scene go, I know the movie is already quite long but another 15m and they could have included all the missing 30s to 1m scenes that were not included in the movie but where quite significant in the books. Like for example Corio's adoption by Sejanus's father at the end among many others.
The cast is pretty solid overall. We have the beautiful Rachel Zegler playing our heroine Lucy Gray and I think she does a pretty admirable job in her role. She does a good job at singing all the songs Lucy Gray does in the books and she manages to get Lucy's personality down quite well as well which is nice to see. The only complaint I have is her character not being quite right which is not even her fault it's just the difficulties of trying to move her character from paper to screen.
Tom Blyth plays Coriolanus Snow and brings him to life on screen. He perfectly portrays Snow's character and personality and most of his nuances as well on the big screen. Lovely casting decision there and I for one really enjoyed his performance.
The supporting cast consisting off but not limited to Hunter Schafer as Tigris, Peter Dinklage as Professor Highbottom and Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman all do amazing jobs in their respective roles. The only casting I'm unhappy with is Viola Davis as they race swapped her character, That is also the reason the movie loses a star from me. That being said she still does a great job as head game maker and gives us a memorable performance.
The VFX and SFX are great, I didn't notice any issues there and the music from Lucy Gray and the Covey makes for sweet listening.
Overall a solid film and more importantly a good prequel to the Hunger Games movies and books we all know and love. A well deserved 7/10 from me with my only wish now being a book and then movie made on Haymitch's games in full, Finnick's, Johanna's etc.
The cast is pretty solid overall. We have the beautiful Rachel Zegler playing our heroine Lucy Gray and I think she does a pretty admirable job in her role. She does a good job at singing all the songs Lucy Gray does in the books and she manages to get Lucy's personality down quite well as well which is nice to see. The only complaint I have is her character not being quite right which is not even her fault it's just the difficulties of trying to move her character from paper to screen.
Tom Blyth plays Coriolanus Snow and brings him to life on screen. He perfectly portrays Snow's character and personality and most of his nuances as well on the big screen. Lovely casting decision there and I for one really enjoyed his performance.
The supporting cast consisting off but not limited to Hunter Schafer as Tigris, Peter Dinklage as Professor Highbottom and Jason Schwartzman as Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman all do amazing jobs in their respective roles. The only casting I'm unhappy with is Viola Davis as they race swapped her character, That is also the reason the movie loses a star from me. That being said she still does a great job as head game maker and gives us a memorable performance.
The VFX and SFX are great, I didn't notice any issues there and the music from Lucy Gray and the Covey makes for sweet listening.
Overall a solid film and more importantly a good prequel to the Hunger Games movies and books we all know and love. A well deserved 7/10 from me with my only wish now being a book and then movie made on Haymitch's games in full, Finnick's, Johanna's etc.