It may not always sing like a songbird when taken as a whole, but The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes still packs a venomous bite at its best.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 19, 2024

...retains the hard edge that made most of these movies register as piercing satires of our reality-television age.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jun 18, 2024

Ballad sanitizes its brutality for a PG-13 rating and diminishes the story’s sense of high-stakes survive-or-die suspense, and Francis Lawrence’s approach to action sequences is bland and uninspired, a reflection of the film’s generic visual aesthetic.

| May 14, 2024

A surprisingly bleak yet narratively elemental mishmash of derivative dystopian tropes, the film's real subversion exists in the delightfully garish and incredibly callous supporting characters bedazzling the decadent capital of Panem.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Mar 12, 2024

While many critics have carped about the decision to hand an entire film over to a character everyone knows will turn evil (apparently, these critics never heard of the Star Wars prequels), the truth is that it’s surprisingly compelling.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Feb 17, 2024

Aside from an interesting and somewhat original story, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has a wonderful cast that includes younger thespians mixed with seasoned veterans.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 13, 2024

Gives a backstory that fleshes out the franchise a little more – and quite honestly, ups the ante. It’s beautifully shot, well-acted, really engaging, and makes for an excellent reason to go to the movies.

| Original Score: 8.5/10 | Feb 12, 2024

There’s still space in this world for the lessons The Hunger Games can teach us about the way we consume media and news, but The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is not clear enough in its vision to be as impactful as its predecessors.

| Jan 15, 2024

An involving prequel that understands the troubling politics buckling a society of inequality and gets brutal when necessary in its depiction of the games. Despite a bit muddled third act its an engrossing prologue.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 5, 2024

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes will cater to tributes, but the unnecessarily long prequel can’t flesh out a one-dimensional villain with a rise and fall narrative in which to emotionally invest.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 1, 2024

Much better than expected and featuring two stand out performances and a world that I find very interesting overall.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 27, 2023

A prequel to the four-film series that provides the origin story for the evil ruler of Panen.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 24, 2023

The ”snakes” of the title may refer to that mass of multicoloured serpents Dr. Gaul wants to unleash on the hapless tributes, but it’s just as easy to see Coryo as the snake to Lucy Grey’s songbird.

Full Review | Dec 23, 2023

[It] has a decent number of exciting, breathtaking moments, as the Games play themselves out. But they can’t sustain that intensity for the full movie, which finds itself borrowing from the past.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 23, 2023

This film questions what you will do in times of stress: Will you kill when it is the only way to survive, be loyal when it is time to be loyal, fight for love when it might mean death? It is interesting, exciting and looks so good on the big screen

| Original Score: 3.4/4 | Dec 18, 2023

Set sixty-four years before the triumph of Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), the clever screenplay reflects the violence assimilated by the culture. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 14, 2023

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is more focused on delivering Easter eggs with the subtlety of a sledgehammer than developing these characters. It leaves us with nearly three hours of brand revival.

| Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 11, 2023

The fun performances by a game cast can't make up for poor pacing and a bloated runtime that feels wholly unearned.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 11, 2023

It’s still just a slightly modernized, teen-oriented take on "Rollerball" or “The Running Man.”

| Original Score: 2/10 | Dec 11, 2023

THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES is an incredible extension of the series, both in terms of structure and theme.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 8, 2023