November marked a very exciting month for fans of Suzanne Collins’ dystopian series, The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, starring Rachel Zegler as Lucy Gray Baird, and Tom Blyth as President Snow, hit theaters on Friday, November 17. It has brought in $200 million dollars globally, as of November 29, according to deadline.com.
According to IMBd, the film serves as a prequel to the others, and follows “…Coriolanus Snow, years before he would become the tyrannical President of Panem.” Later, he is “assigned to mentor a girl tribute named Lucy Gray Baird…”during the 10th Hunger Games. Snow sees this as his chance to reclaim honor for his family.
Numerous students have viewed the movie, including senior Dyllan Dimbokowitz. Dimbokowitz saw the film on opening day, alongside her family. She has “…read the book series and personally [she] thought it was better because there were some details that were left out of the movie…”. The senior believed that while the movie followed the storyline well, “…some of the inner dialogue and feelings were missing…” which would have “…helped the audience better understand Snow’s actions…”. Her favorite part of the movie was “…the initial meeting between Lucy and Snow, where he was introducing her to the Capitol.” Overall, Dimbokowitz would recommend the film to others.
Sophomore Payton Dimbokowitz also saw the film, alongside her older sister. She exclaimed that her favorite character “…would probably be [Coriolanus] Snow, even though he turns out bad.” and ends up being the villain character in the other films.
Junior Abby Szramka attended the film recently with friends as well. While she has not read the books, the junior believed it “…had a very good storyline.” Szramka’s favorite character was Lucy Gray Baird, and she liked “…when she sang to make her point.” One change she would make if she was the director would be “change[ing] the end; [she] really want[s] to know where and what happened to Lucy…”
