Eight years after the end of the saga The Hunger Games, we return to the dystopian world of Panem, but this time we look to the past to learn the history of a villain. We talk about The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakesthe long-awaited prequel that recently reached the top of the most viewed movies in streaming.
What is it about The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Before Katniss’ story, the prequel to The Hunger Games introduces us to the young Coriolanus Snow, only 18 years oldwho during his studies at the capitol, sees an opportunity to change his life when he is assigned as a mentor to Lucy Gray Baird a tribute from district 12 who will be forced to participate in the hunger games.
Faithful to the novels, the movie transports us back to Panem, a dystopian society where segregation and brutality to survive go hand in hand. But this time we will see the events that led Snow to change the games and become the ruthless villain we know.
Nostalgia is not enough for criticism but it is enough for streaming
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes debuted at the end of 2023 in theaters around the world, and although fans were excited to return to Panem, critics didn’t think it was good enough, as it debuted with an average rating of 54 on Metacritic. Although he did highlight that it was a more mature, personal story, with political rawness and allegories to reality.
Fortunately for the movie, fans found it more interesting, and now that it’s just released in streaminghas become the top movie on Prime Videodemonstrating that nostalgia for the franchise continues to have enormous interest at least in Mexico.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes It is an entertaining film, an interesting and raw prequel with political and even psychological overtones that tries to go beyond the charm of youth literature, but that, commercially, It’s nothing more than pure nostalgiaa product of an exploited franchise that is kept alive only by the most fans.
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