THE HUNGER GAMES The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes UNCUT REACTION

There will be another movie end of next year 2026 about Haymitches games. This movie isn't the best of the series but essential for the next movie that comes out.

Nate

I agree that the pacing is a bit weird. I think it's because the three parts have their own dramaturgy, wherease a movie normally have one dramaturgical curve. I think this book would have translated better into a seriers with maybe 10 episodes.

Leuvie

I enjoyed y'alls reaction even though this was not your favorite. You both pick up on so many things and nuances more than other reactions I have seen so I'm glad even though it wasn't your favorite that you hung with it enough to discuss this throughout and at the end. Particularly, I started the book after seeing the movie and I felt you both picked up well on the theme of this book being understanding human nature and the born good/evil type discussion. Most do not pick up on that. Dr. Gaul does play a huge role and it's explored more in the book, though I see why they couldn't include everything but in the book she has several assignments that she assigns the class and you can tell she is grooming him. So bravo for a great reaction! The only thing that I think most reactors miss is the reason Lucy Gray left. I mean she got out of there when he lied about killing folks. If you are dating someone and notice that people start dying around you who he views interfering with his plans, please RUN! I don't care if it seems like betrayal. lol

DovesEyes

I guess you didn't read the book lol. It was written by the same author, so I don't know what you mean by it doesn't stay true to the series. It's her books.

Jala Rhone

This movie definitely didn’t stay true to the Hunger Games series. Yes, they did include the actual Hunger Games but it just felt very dull and it underperformed altogether. I got the vibe further into the movie that it was a musical(lol)/romance gone bad/ fatal attraction style of a movie which is very weird considering that this is a Hunger Games movie and with it being that we were expecting it to be similar to its predecessors. Altogether, I don’t mind the film but for me to enjoy it I had to look at it as it’s own stand alone film and separate it from the others. With that being said looking at it through the lens as a Hunger Games fan I am highly disappointed.

David J

your mom is cringe

Elias Ikari

it's definitley a different perspective if you've read the books and know all of the thoughts snow is thinking and as it's portrayed in the movies. we're unable to see that in the movie which is the downside of how the movie was adapted. i definitley recommend reading all of the hunger games books!

Katie Donahue

im saddened to hear this prequel didn't hit as hard for you guys as the originals.. what i got out of this prequel was the reasoning for snow's true hatred for katniss, in this prequel we can see some correlation between katniss and lucy gray, with the 'hanging tree' song that was written by lucy and became the anthem of the rebellion, one of the last words that lucy said to snow was 'i'm just going to pick some katniss,' and at the end, all of the mockingjays are taunting snow with lucy's voice really just sparked snow's hatred more for mockingjays which later, as we know, katniss becomes the mockingjay and the symbol of the rebellion.. i think this movie was just focused on how snow became who we know him to be and why he has it out for katniss so much, rather than the origin of the hunger games and how it started.. i read the book before the movie came out so i think that's why i have more passion towards the movies haha thank you for listening to us and reacting to this one~! now really looking forward to your stranger things reactions <3

Katie Donahue

nah Mockingjay 1 & 2 were more engrossing for me personally.

SuddenImpulse

far better than Mockingjay 1 and 2.

Owen Hargrave

Had the exact same feeling watching

Ademir Junior

🤣🤣

CpaSpartan Pudgey

first time ever watching this. Its such a cringe and shit paced movie

Adrian

this is probably my second favourite hunger games film, mockingjay part 1 and 2 didn't do it for me.

big harsher

The book definitely gives a much better insight to Snows “downfall” and it feels a lot more gradual as you get an insight to his thoughts more so it’s easier to convey (you realise a lot sooner into the story how selfish and narcissistic he really is and all his actions really are to self preserve and to climb to the top). The book also gives so much more info about the mockingjays and shows Snows hatred towards them, mockingjays are offspring of jabberjays (a failed capitol experiment) and mocking birds, they in some way symbolise that the capital can’t control everything and to him the existence of mockingjays alone are like a slap in the face to the capitol as they were born from something the Capitol created but the mockingjays themselves were not what the Capitol intended to create. The fact that Katniss becomes “the mockingjay” a symbol for the revolution is almost funny because she also is something that the Capitol inadvertently created as her symbolism of hope for the revolution was born from the games. I loved the book so much and there are so many good connections to the original series that it is a bit frustrating that is didn’t play out quite as well on screen and a lot of good parts were cut which to me really added to the story.

I haven't read the book for this one like I did with the Hunger Games trilogy, and I didn't see this one in theaters so this was my first time watching. This one was the weakest of all the Hunger Games movies for me. I could elaborate but my main criticism, again, without knowledge of this specific book and having only seen it once: -While I liked seeing how things "started" with the Hunger Games as we know them and Snows start, I feel like this could have been made a bit more engaging than it was for me personally. Idk if this is more an issue with the book or not. -The pacing is off. I may feel differently on a rewatch but I felt like the first half spent a bit too much time on some thing and the last third needed to be fleshed out more. The build up with the 2 took up a lot of time but the fallout and results felt a bit rushed. -The main characters aren't as enthralling for me as Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch and crew. -The arena segment isn't as interested, but still takes up a good bit of time. This isn't really the movies fault, this is the nature of the time period and situation the story is taking place in. -The arena contestants felt less fleshed out for the most part and less interesting/enticing as characters. -I felt like the atmosphere was done better at some points in the movie than others. -I feel like the acting of the main cast, on average, was not as good, or failed to grab me as much. Not sure if thats just me or not. -I know the music/singing bit is this characters thing, but I feel like there could've been a better way to play it out in the film at points than was the case. The actual singing quality was solid though. Lucy Gray's accent was also a bit jarring for me at times.

SuddenImpulse

I understand that the book was really good - and some say the best in the series, but movie adaptation was way off. I thought I was just tired because I was trying to piece together all the people Snow killed and then he went from questioning the district and its choices to loving the power of his first kill too much. It just seemed like there was too much of a switch from guy trying to save his tribute and the districts and then he is bloodthirsty and excited to go to The Capitol in what seemed like seconds flat. No time for plot development, not much focus on the games. It seems as if the majority of it was shot in an underground parking garage. The two main characters Coryo and Lucy Gray did a good job - but honestly they didn't have much substance to work with. Actually almost seemed like a high school version of Romeo and Juliet.

Lyn Hurst

Meh. This was a tough one to get through. That was just not a good movie. The music and cinematography were really good, but overall the pacing was just weird and the movie was overall pretty unsatisfying. It was interesting to see some of the background, though. I've heard the book is much better, so maybe I'll read that one to see what the author intended for the story.

John Neiberger

lucy gray didn't plant the snake, it wasn't poisonous and she would know that. snakes like to take shelter from the rain under things they can hide in (aka the scarf) it was showing snows paranoia, thinking she must have done it to justify trying to kill her, when it was just about getting rid of loose ends.. and the whole switch up super quick is actually super relatable to me, having an experience with someone i thought i could trust, when they did something and said something extremely suspect, i convinced them everything was fine and when i was out of view, ran ALL the way home without skipping a beat and never saw them again! sometimes you just know in your gut when its time to leave, snows mask slowly began to slip and she could see it!

Zeddy

Fun fact: the first person to experience the changes Snow and Gaul make to how the winners are treated is Mags, the winner of the 11th Hunger Games, and the one who volunteered as tribute for Finnick's girlfriend in District 4.

Josh

I liked the movie for the most part, but I agree the pacing was off. The last half dragged. I definitely love the original series way more. I could do without this movie. But I did think it was really interesting how Snow’s ideas made the hunger games what we saw it was in the original and how without his ideas they would have eventually just stopped because the capital wasn’t watching. It’s pretty sick he made the audience care more about the tributes, so they’d actually watch and root for them. And like Pudgey mentioned, loved the small callbacks to Katniss and how the things Snow experienced when he lived with Lucy Gray in 12 would have been triggering for him. I read the original trilogy but not the prequel book. I heard the book is better, which would make sense. More depth and insight into Snow that’s hard to capture in a movie script.

Ailene Evangelista

The thing I didn't like about this movie is that I don't think it does very well in capturing the inner workings if Coriolanus. In the book, because it's from his pov, we are privy to his every thought and I think because of that it makes how things ended up in the movie much more sensical. The narcissism and nastiness of him doesn't really come across to me in the film at all like it did when reading the book. In the book hes not very nice about Lucy or D12 even though he thinks he is. The entire time he's calculating and duplicitous in a way that isn't conveyed on screen very well. The pacing was odd, the writing was lacking and I wasn't crazy about the performances. Definitely the weakest of the series.

kelly

This dragged on a bit I think.

Golladan

I agree about this film not hitting as hard as some of the others but I think it ranks above mockingjay part 1 for me and arguably part 2 bc it was soo underwhelming for a finale …I also think this film is alot more childish than the others like you don’t even see any blood at all , felt like the Star Wars sequel trilogy that refuses to have any gore.

TheRoguePrince19

Excellent reaction. I felt the same as you did. I enjoyed the portrayal of Snow but the abrupt end with Lucy Grey didn’t work for me. Yes, she couldn’t trust him anymore but it all happened too quickly and with zero emotion. The pacing of this film was also really bad. All in all I think it does add to the story so I’m glad to have watched it but it’s not as good as the other films.

Farbod

This one had a different vibe than the originals. It was really about the Hunger games. It was about how Snow became the monster we see in the originals. The problem with prequels is they depend on the original to really hit. Overall though I enjoyed it.

Darrell Henry

yayyy

Mia Williams

Yeah, this one didn't hit mark for me like the originals.. My girlfriend, who's a huge HG fan was a little disappointed as well.. By the end of it I remember thinking they should've just titled it "Hunger Games a High School Musical"😄 just my opinion..

PastaDon

So excited to hear your thoughts on this one!! Different vibe from the originals but still pretty good

Madison