By Thin Yadanr, Tmy24@uakron.edu
When I first watched the original Hunger Games, I immediately fell in love with the world of dystopian. I could never imagine that another movie could come above these masterpieces. This impression immediately changed when I saw the prequel this last weekend starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Ziegler in “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” directed by Francis Lawrence. The power dynamic of the capitol and the districts, the constant pull into the characters, and the loss of control that comes in the arena all left a longstanding impression on me. Eight years after The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, the fans of Suzanne Collins have been fed with the content in a form of cinematic storytelling; taking us back into the cruel world of Panem where society and government loses control. We are first introduced to Coriolanus Snow in the original Hunger Games as this evil dictator that thrives off his power and stops at nothing to keep his control over the districts. Songbirds and Snake shows us the progression of Snow’s journey to become this power hungry monster, eventually making the hunger games what it is now. It morphs everything we know about the game and brings it down to the true meaning behind it all. It brings out a deeper understanding of how a man with nothing can become so sadistic and selfish when given the power of control. We see this when Snow has his first kill and then slowly loses himself in his romantic relationship. Every step Snow takes is a step into madness and the lengths that he was willing to do to take back control is one is some of the things that Tom Blyth does an amazing job of capturing. Songbird and Snakes does a fantastic job of bringing out the ugly side of people and showing the evil line we choose to stop through.
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