“Snow lands on top.”

Story: It’s time for the tenth annual Hunger Games. After Panem’s failed revolution decimated the Capitol, the once shining city is starting to rebuild. A young Coriolanus “Cori” Snow is tasked with being the mentor for a District 12 tribute, with his future riding on whether he can make her a “star”. But when the Games – and Lucy Gray – become more than he’d bargained for, he must re-evaluate what is truly important to him. Spoiler alert: he’s the villain in the OG trilogy, so don’t expect much.

Genre I’d put it in: Prequels of Popular Series
Release Date: 2023
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy of books and films. Based on the book of the same name.

Gotta say: The thing with prequels is this; it’s not that we’re watching to see what will happen. We know what will come later, as we’ve seen the film/read the book. It’s the telling of the tale that’s the thing. And Snakes takes viewers to a struggling but proud Capitol, letting us see how post-war District 1 was torn between retribution and forgiveness amid new life. Director Francis Lawrence returns to Panem – or is that travels back in time? – and delivers a story that has its own feel, but with plenty of touchstones that keep us rooted in this world. I wasn’t sure I was up for a prequel that focused on the Big Bad of the original story, but with Snakes, it’s the city struggling after years of strife, and how it’s trying to climb out of the hole it dug itself, that I found truly fascinating.

As I’m not sure that Snakes is something that non-fans will be that interested in. While I was captivated by the way this film painted a 60-years-younger Panem, newbies may find the bare bones exposition lacking, and lose the thread. No, the idea of killing kids for rich people’s entertainment is easy to understand. But the heart-tugging pathos may not hit as hard without the original stories behind it. I say that even though performers Dimitri Abold as District 11 tribute Gaius and Nick Benson as District 12 tribute Jessup are absolutely amazing at delivering a whole lot of emotion with very little screen time. (I mean, there’s 24 tributes plus 24 mentors, plus adult characters. It’s A Lot.) For fans, and folks who get the gist though, the harshness of these Games will be amazing.

The look and feel of these Games are vastly different than what we saw in the original films. Tributes are kept in chains, travel to the Capitol in cattle cars. Housed in a zoo enclosure, given little to no food, they’re treated like cattle, and nobody cares if they die before the event. The Games arena is a concrete pit akin to the Roman Coliseum, and mentors are simply students from the Capitol, hoping to “win” by guiding their particular tribute not necessarily to victory, but to popularity. There’s a funky Star Trek/Jetsons aesthetic to the tech in this Panem. Video screens have a mid-20th Century vibe, and the hyper-stylized look of citizens and buildings are only just beginning to appear from the rubble. It’s an excellent way to show how “far” the Capitol has come, and how corrupt it had become by the 75th Games.

Viewers who saw the original films will notice revolutionary and fan favorite Tigris – Hunger Schafer giving almost ethereal beauty and empathy – as Snow’s cousin, long before the character’s body modifications had her removed from her position as a stylist for the Games. There’s also Jason Schwartzman’s goofy, insincere Lucky Flickerman (first host of the Games), whom I’m guessing is a ancestor to Stanley Tucci’s over-the-top Games host come year seventy-five. Easter eggs are kept to a minimum, and are rather low-key, save for one, which I won’t spoil here. But it’s so in-your-face everyone at my screening laughed, and I could feel eyes rolling all around me. (Spoiler: it’s actually a real thing y’all.) Oh, and speaking of the original story? It’s Lucy Gray that wrote “The Hanging Tree”, the song that Katniss sings, and whose words spawn a revolution.

As the leads, Rachel Zegler is luminous as Lucy Gray Baird, a member of the “Covey”, which feels like a twist on Irish Travelers or Roma. And Tom Blyth’s Cori Snow is suitably wide-eyed yet calculating as a boy trying to return his family to the greatness that had been taken from them after his father’s assassination. The onscreen chemistry between the two is palpable, but their character’s individual ideals, morals, and ethics are quickly shown to be an obstacle that they may not be able to overcome. (Yeah, about that…see: original series.) Special shout-out to Josh Andrés Rivera, whose Sejanus Plinth is both Cori’s BFF and wide-eyed innocent that has come up from District 2 to become a classmate of Cori’s. Rivera plays Plinth as a boy who’s just too trusting, and too desperate to try to do anything to help end the inequality of the system. Plinth and Lucy Gray are the angels sitting on Cori’s shoulder, trying their best to out-balance the demons who have latched on.

Snakes is a welcome addition to this franchise. I love seeing world-building get fleshed out, and this story is bittersweet while telling it’s own tale. This is a story not of the Games themselves, but of a boy/man who takes a rebuilding Capitol’s ennui over the Games and turns it into rabid fascination. It’s the story of how evil grows, and how a community can get swept up into it. It’s a taste of life long before Katniss holds up her two-finger salute, and if you’re into this story, you’ll eat it up.

#Protip: Zegler sang all of Lucy Gray’s songs live during filming. Damn, girl. Those are some pipes.