New Hunger Games movie lands fresh Rotten Tomatoes rating after first reviews
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' first reviews are in but does it live up to the original series of films?
The long-awaited prequel movie is set years before Katniss volunteered herself as tribute, this time focusing on 18-year-old Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth here and Donald Sutherland in the original films.
Snow White's Rachel Zegler plays Lucy Gray Baird, the female tribute from impoverished District 12, who Snow is tasked to mentor.
Related: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes review
The film is based on Suzanne Collins' prequel novel of the same name which was released in 2020 five years after The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 hit theatres.
So how does The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes hold up to the Jennifer Lawerence-led series? Well the early critical consensus is pretty good, with the movie being verified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes at 66% from 41 reviews.
Below, Digital Spy has rounded up some of the top reviews for The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes including one by our own Ian Sandwell.
Digital Spy
"Even with this slight dip in the final act, the odds are definitely in The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes's favour. It's sure to be a hit with fans and, who knows, maybe even set the stage for future games to come."
Variety
"Feels like a natural extension of the saga, balancing bloodsport, endangered young love and a heightened level of political commentary that respects the intelligence of young audiences as only Collins can."
Observer
"The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is long, which means that it sometimes lags, but its cast and the well-crafted visuals keep it as entertaining as possible."
Hollywood Reporter
"If only there were something truly new and innovative about this chapter to fully justify resurrecting the Hunger Games franchise eight years after Mockingjay — Part 2."
Associated Press
"Whether The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is enough to relight those embers remains to be seen, but it is a reminder how good a platform they offered young actors. It's a ritual worth returning to."
Mashable
"The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes is captivating through and through, capturing the magic that made The Hunger Games such a sensation while delivering a darker, more nuanced look at the corruption at the heart of Panem."
ComicBook
"The film is daring, engaging, tense, and even occasionally funny. It's no easy feat to make a prequel that's just as good, if not better, than the films that came before. It is faithful to the book and showcases one of the best casts of the year."
Collider
"By focusing on the gray between the good and the bad, and with a scale and scope that the other films never quite had, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes might just be the most engrossing film in this series."
Guardian
"This movie finally ties itself into various knots to prefigure the later world of Katniss, but the time to end the Games came long ago."
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes is released in cinemas on November 17.
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