‘The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ Is the Rare Prequel That Enhances Original

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes earns 3 stars (out of 4) from Us Weekly movie critic Mara Reinstein.

In theory, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes does not have the odds ever in its favor.

Not only has the franchise been absent from the moviegoing consciousness since 2015, it’s a prequel. Shrug. The let’s-see-how-we-came-to-be storyline didn’t effectively fly for epics like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Why would revisiting the…