Set 64 years before the movie that launched the cinematic franchise, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” is the prequel nobody really needed, exploring the origins of Panem’s authoritarian leader Coriolanus Snow. Splitting the movie into three chapters seems appropriate, since the film delivers a trifecta: overwrought, overacted, and overlong.
The somewhat intriguing conceit in adapting Suzanne Collins’ novel involves how the Hunger Games came to be, and how the young Snow (played by Donald Sutherland in the earlier movies) essentially descended to the dark side.
Unfortunately, this fresh-faced version of Snow (played by British actor Tom Blyth, of the “Billy the Kid” TV series) is a particularly bland construct, joining other privileged young residents of the Capitol in serving as mentors to the youths chosen to compete and die as tributes.
Snow’s charge is Lucy Gray Baird (“West Side Story’s” Rachel Zegler, who hopefully will be served better by “Snow White”), who hails from District 12, arriving with a natural flair for playing to the cameras, a killer singing voice and an unfortunately distracting Southern-ish accent.
Snow is understandably smitten, and he soon begins scheming to ensure that Lucy survives the deadly competition. Still, that means navigating its eagle-eyed masterminds, Casca Highbottom (Peter Dinklage, who, as in “Game of Thrones,” both drinks and knows things) and Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis), the latter appearing to channel Cruella de Vil in her look and line delivery.
Keeping Lucy alive won’t be easy. And as Highbottom bluntly tells Snow, the mentors’ task is simply to help create good television, developing “spectacles, not survivors.”
Of course, “The Hunger Games” and director Francis Lawrence (who oversaw the three initial sequels) are no strangers to flamboyant performances, which here also includes Jason Schwartzman conjuring a few welcome laughs as Lucky Flickerman, a weatherman turned emcee of the games with a familiar surname.
Still, “Songbirds & Snakes” careens all over the place, from its limp romantic aspect to the personalities of the various mentors and tributes, which beyond the central duo barely register. Perhaps that’s why the movie features a whole lot of action and sumptuous sets and still manages to feel like a bit of a bore.
In some respects, the chapter format makes the film play like a limited streaming series, which, given the prequel narrative, might have offered a way to better flesh out this dense roster of unknown characters.
As is, “The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” might issue a siren song to curious “Hunger Games” fans, but for those on the fringes, it’s not a call worth answering.
“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” premieres November 17 in US theaters. It’s rated PG-13.
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