I was first introduced to The Hunger Games when I was in elementary school, probably in fourth or fifth grade, by my friend who said I just had to watch it. I knew they were books, and that my dad had read them, but I wasn’t into reading back then, so I decided to watch the movies instead. I saw Mockingjay – Part 1 and 2 in theaters when they came out during Thanksgiving with both my parents and my brother. I never really “left” my Hunger Games phase, much like other media I enjoyed when I was a kid, like Harry Potter, but in 2020, I started reading again and decided to pick up The Hunger Games books, and it reignited my love of the series. I didn’t read The Ballad of Songbirds of Snakes (TBOSAS), because I thought, “There’s no Katniss or Peeta, I don’t want it,” so I just stuck with the original series.
I found out about TBOSAS movie last semester and decided that I, of course, had to see it. I bought the book months ago and tried to pick it up, but alas, I was in a reading slump and failed to accomplish my reading goals. I finally decided at the beginning of November that I had to read it before I saw the movie, which came out Nov. 17. I started reading it when my friend texted me, telling me that she found an advanced screening through Pace Film Club and that she was going to try and get us tickets. She eventually did get us free tickets, which would’ve been much harder if she didn’t have a friend in the club who let her know about the tickets before they were released to the public. This only meant that I had even less time to finish the book because the screening was on Nov. 13.Â
A few days later, I found a conversation with the TBOSAS cast at 92NY on Nov. 16, and bought tickets for me and my friend. We went and were able to see Rachel Zegler, Tom Blyth, Hunter Schafer, Josh Andrés Rivera, and Francis Lawrence, who directed the movie, all talk about their experiences with the movie and each other. After the Q&A, my friends and I decided to go outside to the stage doors to try and see the cast and get our books autographed. I partly achieved what I sought to do and got Rachel Zegler, Hunter Schafer, and Francis Lawrence to sign my book, and got to take selfies with them. The night overall was a success; I had been a huge fan of Schafer for years, so getting to meet her was a dream come true, and Zegler and Lawrence were such kind people, taking time to sign everyone’s books.
My highlights from the cast conversation included Rivera telling the audience that he was Team Peeta after he read the books for the first time years ago, and Lawrence telling us and the cast that he knew what happened to Lucy Gray, because he talked to Suzanne Collins, the author, about it. When the cast was telling him they needed to know and he had to say what happened, he said he was joking and that Collins didn’t actually tell him what happened, but we all knew he was lying and just trying to save face.
My TBOSAS release week experience was more than I could’ve asked for, especially because it was right before I went home for Thanksgiving break; things like that make me incredibly grateful to be living in New York City.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to finish the book before I saw the movie. I had just under 200 pages left, but I was slammed with school and work. I went to the advanced screening with my friend, and we met up with her friend, so there were three of us sitting together. When the movie was over, my friend told me that she was watching my reaction to everything that happened in the third part (the movie was split up the same way the book was with parts one, two, and three, and I had made it to the beginning of the third part). It was a shocking ending that surprisingly never got spoiled for me. I kept hearing that the ending was crazy, and it just changed so fast during the last 50 pages of the book, but that was it.
The movie itself was incredible. After I watched it the first time, I finished the book within the week and went home and saw it a second time with my dad. Obviously, there were many differences, and I felt like it could have been split into two movies if they’d included all the little details, but aside from that, this was one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. The casting was incredible. Tom Blyth played an amazing Coriolanus Snow. I liked how they picked an attractive person to play the villain that would become President Snow, because it showed the audience how charming and well-liked he was, and that was how he came to power. Rachel Zegler played Lucy Gray Baird, and her performance really was hard to top. She had all the emotions down, and the accent she used was perfect (which is debated by many people, most of whom didn’t read the book), and fit with her singing, which was also beautiful. Hunter Schafer and Josh Andrés Rivera’s roles were also so perfectly cast; I can’t imagine anyone else playing Tigris and Sejanus Plinth, respectively.
There has been some backlash from people who haven’t read the book, who were upset about how much singing was in the movie. The movie is literally called The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, and yet people were still surprised by how much singing was in it. Zegler is an incredible singer, as seen in West Side Story, and had the perfect voice for Lucy Gray. Olivia Rodrigo also wrote a song for the movie, which played in the end credits, but it captured what the movie was and set out to do perfectly.
On its opening weekend, the movie made $44.6M in the U.S. It also currently has an 89% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie was originally three hours and 40 minutes but was trimmed down to fit in the theaters, but I’m so curious as to what they filmed and left out. I’m hoping once it’s released on streaming, there will be an extended cut.
Overall, this movie pulled me back into my dystopian phase, and I’m eternally grateful for that. I definitely recommend reading the book before you see the movie, or even reading it after, just so you have the full picture. I wasn’t lying when I said this was the movie of the year and has been the only thing on my mind for the past three weeks. Watch it and read it, I guarantee you won’t be disappointed.