The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)

Great cast, rushed ending. The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes runs 157 minutes and still races through its last act. The final stretch, out in District 12, feels like it needed a movie of its own. Everything before it is strong. Young Coriolanus Snow, heir to a once-grand Capitol family that’s quietly gone broke, is assigned to mentor Lucy Gray Baird, a District 12 tribute who sang her way into the spotlight at her reaping. A scholarship rides on how she does. Tom Blyth plays Snow with a polite smile that never quite reaches his eyes, and it’s a breakout. Rachel Zegler’s songs set this apart from every other Hunger Games movie. Viola Davis plays Head Gamemaker Dr. Volumnia Gaul, and the whole cast is stacked. Some critics felt the series had run out of gas, and a few slow patches agree with them. It made $364 million worldwide. A 6.4 because the cast is terrific and the finale is a blur. $958 says you look up which district you’d come from and argue with the answer.

What works: Tom Blyth makes young Snow both charming and unsettling, Rachel Zegler gives Lucy Gray real fire, and the songs set it apart from the rest of the series.

What doesn’t: At 157 minutes it still rushes the final act, cramming Snow’s biggest turn into a hurried stretch in the woods.

Who it’s for: Hunger Games fans who always wondered how a smooth Capitol kid turned into the president from the books.