This is the fifth film in the franchise that began with The Hunger Games (2012). It's an adaptation of the 2020 book by Suzanne Collins. The books began 15 years ago. The four previous films were highly successful and told stories that where basically extreme examples of reality television. As the films progressed, they became more about war and the ugliness that can spring from violent conflicts. This film continues those themes, but it's a prequel, so it's just as concerned with trying to explain how some of those themes grew or festered, or from where they stemmed. It's also essentially what George Lucas was trying to do in his prequels to Star Wars (1977) and show the roots to his iconic villain and depict how that villain turned to evil. If you basically took the general plot points that happened to Anakin Skywalker in the 1999, 2002 and 2005 films, you'll basically have the overview of what happens here.
Tom Blyth (Billy the Kid and Benediction) stars as Coriolanus Snow, the son of a general who died in the war that resulted in the creation of the Hunger Games. Before his death, Coriolanus' father was the one who helped develop the idea for the Hunger Games. Yet, since his father's death, Coriolanus and his remaining family have struggled financially. When Coriolanus becomes college-age, he goes to work for the Hunger Games in order to make some extra money. He's hired to become a mentor for one of the tributes, or one of the young people who will have to fight to the death inside the arena. Unlike one of his friends who is also a mentor, Coriolanus doesn't really have any moral objections to the Hunger Games.
Rachel Zegler (Shazam! Fury of the Gods and West Side Story) co-stars as Lucy Gray Baird, a young woman from District 12. She wears a colorful dress and is part of a traveling music group. She's a great singer and she plays guitar. She even sings as a way of coping through being a part of the Hunger Games. When she's chosen to be a tribute, she learns that Coriolanus is going to be her mentor. Obviously, she has a problem with the people in the Capitol who are responsible for staging these games and has no problem fighting back or even being part of the resistance or rebellion that attempts to stop these games.
She's distrusting of Coriolanus because he lives in the Capitol and seems loyal to it all. When he starts to care about her or has fallen for her, they begin to work together and help each other. If anything, the Hunger Games scenes help to bond the two of them together, even if those scenes could be skipped over. The film doesn't really become compelling until after the Hunger Games scenes. The relationship between Coriolanus and Lucy Gray is an important aspect, but it's actually not the relationship that is the most important in this story.
Josh Andrรฉs Rivera (Cat Person and West Side Story) plays Sejanus Plinth, the best friend to Coriolanus and a fellow mentor in the Hunger Games. Sejanus becomes disillusioned to the whole operation early. He's the son of a wealthy family, which protects him even when he acts out. After the Hunger Games, Sejanus joins the military and/or police force, known as the Peacekeepers. In the job, he becomes more sympathetic for the resistance and rebellion brewing. When Sejanus gets pulled into a plot, which could also implicate Coriolanus, Coriolanus has to make a choice of which side he will support or cover. Those plot mechanics are more compelling even when you know where it's heading, given it's a prequel.
It was strange though. Lucy Gray is almost propped up to be the next Katniss Everdeen who was the protagonist in the previous four films. Ostensibly, she is. I presume that if this film gets a sequel of some kind, Lucy Gray might become the Katniss of it all. She fits the criterion from a demographic standpoint. However, from an emotional standpoint, Sejanus is the true Katniss of this film. Strangely, I felt Coriolanus and Sejanus had more chemistry and more of that emotional bond than Coriolanus and Lucy. Also, the action in this film isn't as great as in the previous films. The set-pieces are again not as inventive as in the previous entries.
What was great about The Hunger Games and its sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) were the inventive battles we saw once the characters were in the games. It was probably because it was set in the future and featured advanced science-fiction technology. This film is set 60 years before all of that technology, so the inventiveness is all but gone. This film literally just puts the characters in an arena and have them fight it out รก la Gladiator (2000). That sci-fi element in the previous films may have been to blunt the brutality of it all and add a level of spectacle that made the previous films more fun to watch. The previous films set up the characters and trained them, almost as if we were about to participate in a sport, such as boxing or MMA. Here, there's nothing like that, which makes what we see even more brutal and disgusting, which is probably purposeful, but, at the same time, there was nothing engaging or interesting about it. Ironically, the Hunger Games here are more boring and the games themselves could have been trimmed from the film.
Viola Davis (The Woman King and Suicide Squad) plays Dr. Gaul, the head game-maker and she's having a fun time, playing a deliciously wicked character here. Jason Schwartzman (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse and Asteroid City) plays Lucretius Flickerman, the first televised host of the Hunger Games. He's an eccentric and detached character who is obviously the comic relief here. Schwartzman is having just as much fun as Davis, but he's not as much fun as Stanley Tucci who was the equivalent character in the previous films. There are interesting ideas here about the ugliness of war, including a scene that depicts people as animals or savages, literally putting them in a zoo. Yet, those ideas aren't as deeply felt as the ideas and themes in the previous films. Yet, this is a far better film than the Star Wars prequels.
Rated PG-13 for strong violent content and disturbing material.
Running Time: 2 hrs. and 37 mins.
In theaters