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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
Surprisingly Enjoyable
I did not expect to enjoy this film.
I am a fan of the hunger games franchise, I read the original trilogy of books and really enjoyed the first two movies, however since the realise of mockingjay part 1 and 2 movies, which were extremely lacklustre, I have completely lost all interest in the franchise and never paid any attention since.
Therefore upon hearing about this new addition to the franchise earlier this year, I wasn't too bothered and forgot about it. Then I saw it was released, and just decided to go see because why not. I hadn't seen any trailers and knew nothing about it, just that it was based on a new book by Suzanne Collins.
I had absolutely zero expectations, although the cynical part of me thought I might be wasting my time, especially after seeing the runtime on the movie. However, 3 hours later I can admit I left the cinema feeling rather impressed. I genuinely enjoyed it.
While the hunger games trilogy we know with Katniss Everdeen strike me as a fun, rewatchable teen-fantasy, in the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, we see a much darker and grittier side of the world of Panem, which I felt resulted in experiencing a much more horrifying reality of the games themselves. It felt more real, and grounded, and loved seeing how everything operated with far more inferior technology and fewer established rules.
Since watching the movie I've seen criticism of the characters and acting, and while I am usually quite strict on that kind of thing too, I genuinely see their points here. I understand Rachel Zegler is an actress of controversy for a lot of people, I myself have seen a lot of debatable interviews with her, but I believe she shows of her talent here with a great performance. The standout performance is definitely Tom Blyth and a young president Snow however, an actor who I have not seen in anything else before. I found myself genuinely caring about the fate of the two characters and their relationship, which is a hard thing to achieve, and i feel is the core element of this movie, therefore really enjoyed because of it. The supporting characters were also well performed, such as Peter Dinklage and Viola Davis.
The movie is split into three chapters, like a book. Chapters 1 and 2 are certainly the stronger of the three, which I very much enjoyed for reasons already stated. Despite still enjoying chapter 3, and completely recognising it's importance, I feel as though it was slightly rushed, and therefore perhaps would be understood more by people who have read the book and have pre-existing knowledge of the hunger games.
Although certainly not a flawless movie, I am pleasantly surprised by it and had a fun time watching. I would recommend if you fancy a movie night. 7.5/10.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 18: The Mines of Mandalore (2023)
Pretty, but lazy and predictable
Not the best start to season 3. Following on from a lacklustre episode 1, mando arrives on mandalore in the hopes to bathe in the living waters to redeem himself with the creed. Compared to season 1 & 2, the current season plot line just isn't as interesting, however the fact it is much faster paced (as they've already arrived on mandalore and not left it to the end of the season) suggests promise for the plot like to adapt to something more exciting later on.
Mandalore is visually stunning, from the surface to the mines beneath the surface, it really does well to capture the look of a desolated planet. Truly beautiful sci-fi. However there is not much else in this episode to sing high praise about. Any scene where mando wields the darksaber is great fun to watch, and we even had a good scene of bo katan fighting with it, which shows how much more capable she is with it.
The rest of the episode just felt like lazy writing. In short, mando goes to the mines, is captured, needs bo katan to save him, then they go to the waters, gets dragged(?) underwater, needs bo katan to save him again. Mando comes across as quite inept this episode, needing to be saved at every corner. By the way, I put a question mark after 'dragged', because I'm not even sure how mando ended up on the bottom of the pool. Did the mythosaur drag him down to the bottom and just leave him alone, because it didn't seem that agitated when Bo Katan noticed it lurking in the shadows. The whole scene just felt like a forced way to do with the reveal. I think people in the Star Wars universe need to stop wading in to shallow waters. That's twice in two episodes. Yes, the mythosaur has the potential to be veryyyy cool, but I think most Star Wars fans would've predicted the mythosaur to appear so it's reveal isn't exactly a great shock.
Also what was up with "Cockroach Grevious"? This random 'cyborg-eye' creature living under the surface that nearly overpowered two of the strongest mandalorians. It's appearance didn't really feel Star Wars-y either, all the robotics were too cgi and it kind of felt out of place.
I think it shouldn't be too much to ask for, compelling episode plots with fun, believable action sequences, however i am beginning to fear that the Mandalorian season 3 will fall into the classic Disney pit of spewing out vapid content, with a sprinkling of fan service some and fancy visuals for it to hide behind.