Back to make a killing
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES Cert 12A ★★★★ In cinemas now
What worked in Disney’s Cruella and Maleficent mostly works for the prequel to Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games, the best-selling sci-fi trilogy that became a hit movie tetralogy (that’s four) starring Jennifer Lawrence. The game here is to focus on an old villain’s salad days when he was young, innocent, brooding and fanciable.
Said baddie Coriolanus Snow – played by Donald Sutherland in the other films – is now Tom Blyth’s hunky cadet. The setting is 64 years before the first film and Snow is a popular student in The Capitol Academy (think Hitler Youth in red kilts). He’s so well liked, his rich pals nickname him Coryo, swerving an obvious alternative offered by the last four letters of his name.
However, Coryo has a secret. He comes from a respectable family, but he’s skint and desperately needs to win the cash prize handed to the Academy’s biggest swot of the year.
Then the rules suddenly change. The Hunger Games, a televised kill-or-bekilled contest featuring a dozen or so randomly selected teens from undesirable neighbourhoods, has suffered a ratings dip. So the brightest young things are tasked with giving it a PR makeover. Each final-year student will mentor an unwilling contestant. The young fascist who is best at making the TV audience root for their mentee will win the prize.
To his initial horror, Snow is handed slight gypsy girl Lucy Gray Baird (West Side Story’s Rachel Zegler). But, while she’s clearly rubbish at fighting, Lucy Gray has another talent. She can sing heartfelt country and western ballads. As sparks fly, Coryo starts fretting more about her survival than his own.
But will young love blossom? Or will it die in the arena? We know where old Snow ends up but watching his slow embrace of the dark side is surprisingly compelling.
‘‘ Watching Snow’s slow embrace of the dark side is surprisingly compelling