An average movie

I have never been a huge fan of this franchise but, since this prequel was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. To be honest, I have to admit that I actually barely remember ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy, except that the 2nd installment was the best one and that the 3rd installment was ruined by being split in 2. Well, at least, it was much more satisfying that they told this story in one single movie. Furthermore, telling the origin story of Coriolanus Snow, one of the bad guys from the previous trilogy, did sound intriguing. Furthermore, I don’t think I ever saw Tom Blyth before but he was a perfect choice to play this rather complex character. Concerning Rachel Zegler, even though she did look lovely as usual, I don’t think she was really convincing but, to be fair, it might have to do more with how her character was written than with her actual performance. Indeed, it was actually a pretty dark tale and there was a great opportunity to display how Coriolanus became such a major f*cker (at least, that’s how I remember him) and to see how he managed to win the Hunger Games by working together with one of the tributes. They should have focused on how complex their relationship was and how they both might use and manipulate each other to either survive or reach their personal goals. However, instead, they kept trying to convince the viewers that Snow was not such a bad egg after all, at least, not at the time, which was a rather lame approach. With Lucy Gray Baird, it was even worse though. Indeed, at the end of the day, she was reduced to be a pretty tribute with a great voice who survived pretty much only because her mentor cheated and the fact that she fell in love with him way too easily made her character even more shallow. By making them 2 survivors ready for anything instead of 2 oblivious lovers would have been so much darker but also so much more fascinating. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still a decent movie but you should probably watch it only if you really like the genre or this specific franchise. 

6/10