... ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Review: A Compelling Backstory for Panem’s Power-Hungry Villain

... ‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes’ Review: A Tale Of Power And Uncertainty In Pre-Katniss Panem

... Excerpt from Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Gets Fresh Rotten Tomatoes Score With Early Reviews:

Set to have its wide release on Nov. 17, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes as debuted with a current score of 67% fresh based on 46 reviews from Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. While this unfortunately makes the prequel the lowest-scored film of the Hunger Games series as of this time, it's not by a wide margin. Both 2014's The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part 1 and its 2015 sequel, Mockingjay, Part 2, have scores of 70% fresh. This means that The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes has a good chance of climbing past those two films to avoid having that distinction if subsequent reviews are largely positive. The original Hunger Games, released in 2012, boasts an 84% score while 2013's The Hunger Games: Catching Fire has the highest score of the series at 90%.

With The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, the consensus is that the casting and story are exceptionally strong, standing out as the best aspects of the prequel. Fico Cangiano of CineXpress even called the movie one of the "best The Hunger Games films," adding in his review, "Coriolanus Snow's rise to power story is well executed by F. Lawrence in this colder, twistier and more interesting prequel. Rachel Zegler is phenomenal as feisty Lucy Gray Baird." Grace Randolph of Beyond the Trailer similarly stated, "Tom Blyth & Viola Davis make this prequel sing. This is the best Hunger Games movie since Catching Fire, and worth another trip to the arena."

... Excerpt from The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes review – back to an empty future:

It’s easy to lose the will to live halfway through the title, never mind the actual film – in all its exhausting, convoluted silliness. This is a pointless new iteration of IP content from the Hunger Games franchise, based on Suzanne Collins’s original YA bestsellers, which over four movies from 2012 to 2015 confirmed the superstar status of Jennifer Lawrence, playing defiant heroine Katniss Everdeen, one of the starving people in a dystopian future state forced to take part in a bizarre televised survival contest. That initially fierce film series was subject to the law of diminishing returns, but they never quite diminished to zero.

For this prequel, however – taken from Collins’s 2020 novel of the same title – the interest, dramatic momentum and energy have frankly expired, and all we have are the ridiculous outfits, the hallucinatory hairstyles, the zero-suspense action sequences, the standard-issue CGI cityscapes, the non-satirical flourishes about media control and Rachel Zegler (in what is effectively the Katniss role) doing a frankly bizarre suth’n accent in an eccentrically designed country-music-star dress, in her picturesque itinerant poverty, singing her down-home ballads while strumming a guitar which looks as expensive as a Lamborghini. For sure, Jason Schwartzman gets laughs playing the Games’s oleaginous TV host and part-time weather forecaster Lucky Flickerman, but the humour of his role only seems to point up the baffling and strenuously uninteresting solemnity of everything else.

... Excerpt from The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes Review - An Excellent, Fascinating Return To Panem:

When The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes was first announced, there was skepticism over the decision to tell the story of an unrepentant villain, and some scoffed at the idea of a movie as well. However, from the moment the new film begins, there is little question that The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a worthy addition to The Hunger Games series. Going back in time 64 years before Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteered as tribute, the new movie picks up with 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) as he is unwillingly thrust into the 10th Hunger Games as a mentor to an unlucky tribute. Coriolanus merely wants to secure the coveted Plinth Prize, an award that will give his once affluent but now struggling family the money needed to pave the way for his ambitious future within Panem's Capitol. With fair hair and calculating eyes, Blyth sinks into the role of the young Snow, a man who cares little for the Districts and its people, with ease.

Coriolanus' path to the Plinth Prize is woven in with the fate of his tribute, a nomadic musician from District 12 named Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). Armed with a powerful singing voice and her sly charm, Lucy Gray swiftly proves she has more to offer than her origins may suggest, and Coriolanus sees an opportunity in her. It isn't long before he's conniving to win her trust and her victory in the Games, though Lucy Gray has her doubts about both. Written by Michael Lesslie and Michael Arndt, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is structured into three parts, the first two of which are humming with an urgency that can be felt almost immediately. The twisted dynamic between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray fuels the heart of the movie, and watching Blyth and Zegler play off each other is one of the most exciting things about it. Anyone familiar with The Hunger Games knows full well the man Coriolanus will turn out to be, and Lawrence and the creative team don't shy away from that knowledge. Indeed, while there are moments of sympathy for Coriolanus, they are played with the confirmation that, regardless of the good person he could have been, a darker journey lies ahead; this only serves to add a fascinating layer of tension to The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.

... Excerpt from Box Office: ‘Hunger Games’ Prequel ‘Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Targets $50 Million Debut:

“Hunger Games” prequel “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is expected to emerge victorious in this weekend’s box office battle royale.

It’s competing against two fellow newcomers, Universal and DreamWorks Animation’s threequel “Trolls Band Together” and Sony’s gory thriller “Thanksgiving,” in this crowded pre-Turkey Day corridor. Despite the stacked race, all three films could work as counter-programming against each other and carve out solid box office receipts.

With a lackluster turnout expected for “The Marvels,” “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” will lead in North America with at least $50 million in its first weekend of release. Tracking, however, has suggested a wide range of $45 million to $60 million from 3,700 theaters. It’s also opening at the international box office, where the film is expected to bring in roughly $50 million for a global start of around $100 million.