The movie version of “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” was in theaters on Thursday night for those, like me, who couldn’t wait for Friday’s official release.  The film, a Hunger Games prequel, was fantastic, although there were a few things that I did not like about it.

One of the things I didn’t care for was the scene where Coriolanus was in the forest hunting Lucy Gray. The scene felt like it went on for ages. Suspense was building up for too long before it came to a satisfactory conclusion, making the whole scene feel empty. However, the good from this scene majorly outweighs the bad. The movie did well in connecting us to Coriolanus. In the book, his thoughts were hard to decipher from what was going on in the real world. In some cases that can lend itself to the story; in this case, it did not.

That was also one of the reasons why I felt the prequel was better than the original trilogy. While Katniss had a very moving story, it was difficult to see what she was thinking which caused a disconnect between her and the movie goer. Something I was really impressed with in the new movie was how they managed to fit 517 pages worth of information in a movie, without it feeling rushed or incomplete. That was another thing the original movies struggled with; it felt as though they had omitted many valuable parts of the story.

Finally, the actors’ portrayals of the characters were above and beyond. The casting choices were fabulous. Tom Blyth played Coriolanus Snow. Other key roles were Rachel Zegler (Lucy Gray Baird), Peter Dinklage (Casca Highbottom) and Viola Davis (Dr. Gaul).  They were all so good, I cannot bring myself to pick which one was the best. It is a tie between Coriolanus and Dean Highbottom.

Overall, I would choose to see this movie over the first three, but I prefer the original books instead of the prequel. And so, if you are debating on reading or watching “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” I would advise you to watch the movie. Grade B+