'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes' review: Who's hungry for more?

The "Hunger Games" prequel "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" ignores the very real question of whether we needed or wanted a return to "The Hunger Games" universe and throws viewers back into its world, hoping they'll just go along for the ride.

It's a decent ride, for what it's worth, with strong production values and credible performances from a set of committed actors. But there is a nagging sense that we're not turning over any new stones here, and we're participating in an exercise of corporate IP simply for corporate IP's sake.

"The Hunger Games" came along during a boom period for teen lit adaptations, as the "Harry Potter" crowd hit its teen years and audiences swooned over Bella and Edward in the "Twilight" movies. "The Hunger Games" movies — four of them, based off three novels by Suzanne Collins — were released, one a year, between 2012 and 2015, and they solidified the already rising star of Jennifer Lawrence, who starred as badass warrior rebel Katniss Everdeen, grossing almost $3 billion worldwide along the way.

The teen lit wave cooled in their wake — the "Divergent" series never finished, the "Maze Runner" movies tailed off and "The 5th Wave" never caught on — and "The Hunger Games" seemed like a product of its time. But is there any more juice left in this orange? Let's squeeze it and see!

"The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes," based on Collins' 2020 prequel, plops us back into the Districts, as a young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth), who grows up to be the wicked autocrat ruler of the world of Panem (he's played by Donald Sutherland in the original movies), is a teen. He's grown up seeing the poverty and cruelness of the world around him and is struggling to uphold the honor of his family, and he's pulled in to mentor a young tribute in the latest round of the Hunger Games, the 10th installment of the kids-killing-kids-for-TV-ratings form of entertainment that is a little bit "Running Man," a little bit "Battle Royale" and/or a little bit "Squid Game," depending on your frame of reference.

Snow is asked to look after Lucy Gray (Rachel Zegler), a District 12 tribute with a Down South accent a gift of song, kind of like "American Idol's" Kellie Pickler, minus the pluck. Zegler, from "West Side Story," has wholesome theater kid energy, but when the script asks her to show a spark of resistance — at her tribute ceremony, she tells her oppressors "kiss my a--" and bows to the crowd in defiance — she lacks the the punk rock spirit and survivalist wherewithal needed to make it through the treachery of the Hunger Games rituals.

Those rituals are designed by Dr. Volumnia Gaul, who is played with mad scientist zeal by Viola Davis, who is in a head-to-head competition with Jason Schwartzman's Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman for who's having the most fun on-screen. Schwartzman's character is an early, snarkier, more indie rock version of Stanley Tucci's garish game show host from the earlier movies, and both he and Davis make every scene they're in better.

Peter Dinklage is also an asset as Casca "Cas" Highbottom, the conflicted official who helped come up with the Games, and who has a long history with Snow's family. These characters, plus Uli Hanisch's production design, lend "The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" a gravitas it lacks when the overlong story is focused on Blyth and Zegler's characters, which is unfortunately the bulk of the movie.

After helping Lucy through the Games, Coriolanus is sent down the ladder to work military duty, and he dons a blonde buzz cut and white T-shirt look that makes him look like District 12's Slim Shady. He and Lucy circle each other in a relationship that never quite sparks, which for all the pizzazz of the other performances, knocks "The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes" down a peg: The engine at its center never revs up to full speed.

So what we have is essentially a tribute to the earlier films, with Francis Lawrence (who helmed entries 2-4 in the original series) back in the director's chair, but without much sense of drive or purpose to the proceedings. Here we are, but why are we here? "The Hunger Games" brought us to the table, but "The Ballad of Songsbirds & Snakes" leaves you with a bit of an empty stomach.

agraham@detroitnews.com

'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes'

GRADE: C+

Rated PG-13: for strong violent content and disturbing material

Running time: 158 minutes

In theaters