Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Though a great movie in general, the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is a generally poor adaptation of the book. As the reincarnation of the popular series (with the book being published a whole decade after Mockingjay), the movie had the broad strokes of the plot in hand, but the finer details were glossed over, leaving many viewers that had read the book wondering where and what certain things were.
Many instances of this were shown throughout the movie, where characters that should’ve been dead or plot lines that could’ve been followed weren’t, leaving some of the actions taken and made during the movie seem devoid of reason or explanation, due to a lack of context. One of the biggest examples is during the hunger Games half of the movie, where many viewers were dissatisfied with how the Capitol interview with the Districts’ tributes was glossed over, which left context and character building for Coriolanus untouched and unexplored.
Another unfortunate thing for the movie was that it felt like multiple plots in one. The book, distinguished by the fact it is split into two major storyline’s connect by one character, was shoddily transferred into the movie in this aspect. The transfer from the focus on the Hunger Games and having Coriolanus be a Mentor, to being out in the Districts with Snow as a Peacekeeper, felt jarring in my opinion and it could’ve been handled better.
Overall, the movie was an ok film in and of itself if it was a standalone, but as an adaptation of a book, and such a highly anticipated one at that, it struggled to keep context that would’ve been helpful or entertaining for the movie. Overall, we give it a 60%.