I continue on this streak to take down my movies to watch bucket list before probably next year since now that we are on end of the year holidays season things have slow down, so last night I watched the latest Hunger Games movie from 2023 and I admit before starting I was not sure what to expect, especially after the whole drama surrounding Rachel Zegler and her upcoming Snow White role, but I tried my best to not get stuck on the drama and focus on the story itself that takes us 64 years before Katniss Everdeen became the face of the rebellion, just trying to remain on the entertaining side of things. At 2 hours and 37 minutes, the movie is also the longest entry in the franchise and you will feel those two hours, but the stunning visuals and world building kept me entertained for the vast majority of it, the CGI work is very good although I'm no expert on this technical aspects, its just my average viewer impression, and the scenarios are very colorful, giving us a new side of Panem that I have not seen before.
Rottentomatoes Rating
The story develops around young Coriolanus Snow played by Tom Blyth, who is trying to keep his family's name up while keeping their poverty a secret after the war that caused the Hunger Games, he's going to the Academy to try to get a scholarship that will guarantee his future. The plot starts to take off after the Academy reveals that students will be mentoring tributes for the 10th annual Hunger Games and Snow gets Lucy Gray Baird from District 12, played by Rachel Zegler. At this point, the Games are still a bit rough around the edges, with low ratings and no real organization, and as Snow suggests changes that would eventually become the standard format we see in the original movies. There is the love story aspect on the movie where Snow tries to balance his love for Lucy Gray with his ambition to be successful in the Capitol, Snow’s relationship with Lucy Gray becomes complicated, and Dr. Volumnia Gaul played by Viola Davis, begins to notice Snow’s strategic thinking and starts to raise him to be a bigger player in the future of the Games, in such a predatory environment you really never know who you working for.
Young Snow knows he has to excel and had some big shoes to fill if he wanted to turn things around for his family name, and Tom Blyth’s performance is a bit shaky at first, I don't know it seem like he was not really into the madness of world that this is, but really picks up latter on during the movie, what I meant for this is that he didn't felt natural and a bit over the top at first while other characters like Volumnia and Dean Highbottom always felt part of the madness. It is only when Snow transformation from a somewhat sympathetic character into the ruthless leader we know he becomes feels more natural as the story progresses. Rachel Zegler brings a different energy to Lucy Gray than we saw with Katniss, she’s more charismatic, her singing talents give the movie that fantasy aspect to the movie and she owns every scene she’s in and makes you want to see what happens to her character, its the fairy tale story and to be hones she does well, all she needs to do is act and keep her opinions to herself. Dr. Gaul, played by Viola Davis with mismatched eyes and a cold demeanor, is absolutely terrifying and every time she steps on screen she creates this sense of danger, and Peter Dinklage as Dean Highbottom brings a warm aspects to his character, showing the toll it is taking on him. Lucky Flickerman played by Jason Schwartzman provides to the movie a may be needed comic relief as his hosting segments break up the tension without feeling out of place or over the top.
Remember how I mention you are going to feel those two hours?, well I think the movie is trying to do too much in one sitting and I can’t help but think it would have worked better as two movies, if you watch this at the theater they had to have a break, the pacing is a little rushed at times, especially getting closer to the two hours mark, its like someone literally says "TF 2hrs already and we not done yet?", its here where some of the important character developments feel a bit forced. I do like how they handled Snow’s descent into villainy, but as I mention this transition or early steps felt off and there were some moments that could have used more time to develop naturally, but the movie does a good job at showing how small compromises and choices made his way down this path. The attention to detail in how the Capitol and Districts looked before the Games was a big selling point for this story, showing how brutal the Games of old were and the visual effects and set design are outstanding.
It all finally comes to climax when our hero Snow is sent to District 12 as a Peacekeeper when the Games are over, stuck there and growing closer to his love Lucy Gray but still not out of Dr Gaul's agenda for the future of Panem. There is this ambiguous aspect of the movie I'm not so sure whether Lucy Gray survives or doesn't, which gives the story another level of uncertainty, and I'm not even sure if she will be on the 2026 movie now that the intent has basically cancel Rachel Zegler but you know how we humans quickly forget. There this kinda of callback to the original series closes the movie, with Donald Sutherland voice over from Mockingjay about how the things we love most destroy us, which is a new meaning after seeing Snow's relationship with Lucy Gray and how it informs his transformation into the tyrant we get to know, it was meant from the beginning, but the ending also shows how Snow begins to change the Games in the ways that we see them in Katniss's time, the Victory Tour and better prizes for winners, while taking away whatever humanity he has left. I'm not a reader period, not even going to say I'm not a fan of the books because I like the story on the movies, this iteration was an odd way of explaining how the games we learn about during the first movies became to be, their origins with a classic love story where there had to be a sacrifice both spiritual as Snow turns into what he despite.
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