The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Movie Review

64 years before Katniss Everdeen volunteered as tribute, and decades before Coriolanus Snow became the tyrannical President of Panem. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes follows a young Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) who is the last hope for his failing lineage, the once-proud Snow family that has fallen from grace in a post-war Capitol. With his livelihood threatened, Snow is reluctantly assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a tribute from the impoverished District 12. But after Lucy Gray’s charm captivates the audience of Panem, Snow sees an opportunity to shift their fates. With everything he has worked for hanging in the balance, Snow unites with Lucy Gray to turn the odds in their favor. Battling his instincts for both good and evil, Snow sets out on a race against time to survive and reveal if he will ultimately become a songbird or a snake.^[1]

I enjoyed this movie. Although it was a very different story from the one in the book, I still loved the production of it. The clothing and architecture of the Capitol just 10 years after the war was very interesting to see; it’s so different from how they are when the first movie takes place 64 years later. I like how the Capitol has this 60s-70s feel to it, with the old TVs and retro style, even though it makes no sense story-wise; The Hunger Games takes place centuries in the future.

It was really interesting to see the difference in the Capitol 65 years can make; there are no flashy costumes, surgical enhancements, dyed skin, or anything of that sort. The whole Capitol looks very modest and classy, mirroring President Snow’s wardrobe and mansion in the main trilogy. The Hunger Games themselves are also very different from what they are by the time the 74th rolls around; instead of a high-speed train with decadent foods and luxurious living quarters, the tributes are shipped in livestock and cattle cars with no food. Instead of a 12-story tribute center with a glass elevator, they are dumped in a monkey enclosure in the Capitol zoo. The difference in treatment between this book and the last 3 is drastic. We can somewhat see how it made it to the luxury of the 74^th when the Academy is talking about ways to increase ratings in the games, and Coriolanus brings up betting, tribute interviews, and increasing brutality and drama for effect. This idea eventually turns the Hunger Games into the spectacle that it is in The Hunger Games and Catching Fire.

In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie, Coriolanus Snow is a likable protagonist; he’s depicted as humble, likeable, and selfless. He even grew up in poverty: after District 13 was bombed, all of the Snow family’s munition bonds were gone, and they lost all their money. With both parents gone and the only adult being too old to work, Coriolanus and Tigris had to sell most of their belongings to get by, and even then, they usually go to bed hungry. All of this gives the audience the impression that Snow was a good person before he “turned evil,” when that couldn’t be further from the truth. In the novel, you are told the story through Coriolanus’s point of view, and his mindset and bias heavily impact the story being told. In the book, Snow is selfish and narrow-minded; he cannot see how the people of the districts are anything but subhuman, and he only takes a liking to Lucy Gray because she says she’s not from 12, but Covey.

Almost every decision Coriolanus makes in the books is based on financial and social-climbing moves. He is extremely manipulative of every situation he is in to favor him, and his internal monologue really shows how vain and selfish he is. He often uses his friendships with people like Sejanus and Clemensia Dovecot to get what he needs by charming them, then turning his back on them when they can’t help him anymore. All of his most outstanding acts can be traced back to the influence of others around him. His only positive trait is how loyal he is to his family; everything he does is to preserve the fallen Snow name. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes movie lacks Snow’s internal monologue, and without it, you only see the persona he has around others. The movie also changed many of the events that happened in the book, making Coriolanus look like the innocent person being cheated out by others, when that just wasn’t true. I don’t know why the director decided to depict Snow as the hero in this movie despite not being a good person in the book, but I guess that was just his interpretation.

The movie also changed the personality of Lucy Gray. I love Racheal Zegler, and she brings an awesome interpretation to Lucy Gray, but it isn’t completely true to the book character. In The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes book, Lucy Gray is kind and showy, and a little vain. She sings music for comfort, not for rebellious actions. Coriolanus easily fits into the “protector” role for her. In the movies, however, Racheal Zegler gives a different take on Lucy Gray. She gives Lucy Gray a rebellious personality, kind of showing her as the “first Katniss”

Sejanus Plinth is a very interesting character in both the book and the movie. His personality is mostly the same in both book and movie format, and I’m thankful for that. Sejanus is originally from District 2, having moved to the Capitol with his family after the war ended 10 years prior. Despite living in the Capitol for 10 years, nobody sees him as a Capitol citizen, not even Sejanus himself. Nobody in the Capitol is phased by the horrific treatment of people in the Districts, it seems, except for Sejanus. He continuously has outbursts over the way the people of the districts are starved and killed, and nobody understands why. They all just think he’s crazy, including Coriolanus himself. Sejanus sees Snow as his best friend, as he is the only person who doesn’t ridicule him. In reality, however, Snow doesn’t respect Sejanus in the slightest; he sees him as a significantly lower class than him, and constantly judges his inherently “district” qualities like calling his mother “Ma”, speaking out of turn, and having basic empathy for others in general.

1. Lionsgate, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. Directed by Francis Lawrence, IMDb, IMDb.com, 2023, imdb.com. Accessed 9 June 2026.