'Hunger Games: Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' review: Convoluted, downbeat prequel

The key ingredient in “The Hunger Games” — aside from its star, Jennifer Lawrence, that is — was its ability to have its cake and eat it, too. Lawrence played a girl trapped in a brutal dystopia who somehow became both a Taylor Swift-caliber rock star and a Che Guevara-style guerrilla. That combination of glamorous makeovers and revolutionary politics never made a whole lot of sense, but kudos to Suzanne Collins, author of the original novels, for ignoring logic and following her instincts.

A new prequel, “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” follows a similar non-logic — but with far less captivating results.

Set 64 years before the first films, “Songbirds” zeros in on Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), not yet the tyrannical president of Panem but a bright-eyed young student. As the latest edition of the sacrificial Hunger Games approaches, he must mentor an impoverished young “tribute,” Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler). Snow’s goal is to win a cash prize. Lucy’s is to simply stay alive.

The concept here is a villain origin story, but a deadly serious one. Its tone is more “Joker” than “Cruella.” Where the Games in the first films offered visceral thrills, here they just seem sorrowful: Many of the youngsters are ill (one is literally rabid), making them easy prey for the ruthless Coral (Mackenzie Lansing) and her gang. What’s more, Lucy is not much of a fighter; she’s more of a runner. Her saving grace is her singing voice, which captivates viewing audiences (Collins herself co-wrote Lucy’s Irish-inspired ballads).

Under the earnest direction of series veteran Francis Lawrence, “Songbirds” is truly epic in scope, though that’s not ever in the film’s favor. Following the Games comes a lengthy third act focused on Snow’s exile, his reunion with Lucy and his fraught relationship with a rebel-minded friend, Sejanus (a compelling Josh Andrés Rivera). It’s simply too much for one movie to handle.

That’s too bad, given the movie's fine cast. Blyth, a relative newcomer, is convincing as Snow both in his golden-boy phase and his later, steelier incarnation. Viola Davis does a zany, google-eyed turn as head gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul, while Jason Schwartzman makes for a suitably oily game-show host, Lucky Flickerman (ancestor of Stanley Tucci’s Caesar Flickerman, we presume). The great Peter Dinklage is the school’s mournful dean, Highbottom. Zegler gives Lucy her all, but she’s thwarted by an unfortunate, Ozark-style accent.

To its credit, “Songbirds” is trying to be something complex and sophisticated. But in the end it can't escape its main function as a reverse-engineered prequel to a popular piece of intellectual property.

By Rafer Guzmán

rafer.guzman@newsday.com