The Starvation Video games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has simply dropped on Netflix, and fans are already calling it the ‘finest movie in the franchise’.
It’s proving so widespread, in reality, that following its Netflix debut this week, it’s climbed into the highest 10.
Launched in November 2023, the motion/journey film is predicated on the 2020 novel of the identical title, serving as a prequel to 2012’s vastly profitable The Starvation Video games, which starred Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson.
Set many years earlier than the enduring Mockingjay period, this darkish and dazzling prequel tells the origin story of a younger Coriolanus Snow—the person who would later turn out to be Panem’s most feared president.
Lengthy earlier than he wore white fits and ordered insurgent bombings, Snow was simply one other formidable teenager clawing his means out of poverty and into energy.
He’s performed by Tom Blyth with an unnerving mixture of attraction, desperation, and icy management, making the autumn from grace really feel each inevitable and laborious to look at.
Reverse him is Rachel Zegler as Lucy Grey Baird, a District 12 tribute with a voice that hypnotises and a will to outlive that rivals Katniss’, although she’s something however a carbon copy.
Lucy Grey isn’t any insurgent, and Zegler cleverly brings her to life along with her electrical efficiency.
From her haunting ballads to her quiet methods, she instructions each scene she’s in—and fans can’t cease speaking about her.
‘I like how they made one other robust feminine character with out having to resort to Katniss’ clone who fights good,’ @nogoodpho wrote on Reddit.
Add in a show-stopping efficiency from Jason Schwartzman as Fortunate Flickerman and Viola Davis as the terrifying Dr. Gaul, and also you’ve acquired a movie that’s half dystopia, half musical, and 100% watch-worthy.
When it hit cinemas in late 2023, Songbirds and Snakes acquired combined critiques—some critics liked its ambition, whereas others had been postpone by its sluggish burn and darker tone.
It did, nonetheless, gross $349million (£255.6m) off its $100m (£73.2m) finances.
And now that it’s streaming, audiences are giving it—and its 64% Rotten Tomatoes rating—a re-examination, and this time, they’re hooked.
Social media is buzzing with reward, fan theories, and ‘I advised you so’ posts from individuals who at all times believed the prequel could be a game-changer.
@nolanpflan wrote: ‘In my view this fingers down the most effective film in the Starvation Video games franchise.’
‘I used to be gripped the complete runtime and by no means felt an oz. of boredom. I simply want they went the additional mile and went a full three hours for the sake of the final act, however I’m nonetheless more than happy.I really suppose that is leagues above the opposite 4 Starvation Video games movies,’ @tacomasters added.
One other viewer, @karpaensi, praised the discharge: ‘You realize it’s an excellent film when it haunts you. I watched it and I’ve been serious about it all day.’
And so they’re not fallacious.
In contrast to the later movies in the unique sequence, which leaned closely into politics and revolution, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes—which options the music Can’t Catch Me Now from Glastonbury headliner Olivia Rodrigo—retains the concentrate on the sector and the twisted beginnings of the spectacle we got here to know.
It’s brutal, uncooked, and unflinching in its depiction of how simply human struggling might be became leisure—and how briskly a determined boy can turn out to be a monster.
Director Francis Lawrence, who helmed Catching Fireplace (2013) and each Mockingjay (half 1 in 2013 and half 2 in 2015) movies, returns with a sharper eye, making a world that’s extra dirty than shiny—and all the higher for it.
That is Panem at its most fragile and harmful, and the Capitol isn’t the polished powerhouse we’re used to—it’s the definition of chaos, and it is simply beginning to realise how highly effective concern might be.
With out giving an excessive amount of away, it pulls the rug out from beneath you, then pulls it as soon as once more, simply whenever you suppose you’re again in your ft.
Everybody has a distinct concept, and that’s all a part of the magic.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is streaming now on Netflix.
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