We got to witness the 10th annual Hunger Games up close and personal with the latest installment of “The Hunger Games,” “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes.”

Since Suzanne Collins’ book, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” came out on May 19, 2020, selling over 500,000 copies, many have been anxiously waiting for the film adaptation. The movie premiered and made $19.1 million on November 17, 2023 alone.

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” movie brought back some characters we know from the original movies, such as Coriolanus Snow and Tigris Snow. There were also some new characters introduced, such as Lucy Gray Baird and Sejanus Plinth. If you really know your Hunger Games, then you might even notice some of the mentors have the same last names as the game makers, such as Arachne Crane and Hilarius Heavensbee.

The main character, Coriolanus Snow, is portrayed by Tom Blyth. Coriolanus Snow is selected to be a mentor to one of the tributes for the 10th annual Hunger Games. His tribute ends up being Lucy Gray Baird from District 12, who is portrayed by Rachel Zegler. The two work together to give Lucy Gray Baird the best shot during the games. They also start to fall for each other throughout the course of the film.

The movie and book are both split into three parts: The Mentor, The Hunger Games, and The Reckoning. This was a nice way to tie the two together. There were some other areas where the book and movie did not add up though. In the book, the saying “Snow Lands on Top,” was given much more emphasis than in the movie. This is a very important detail because it shows where Snow gets all of his arrogance and sense of being better than everyone else. Lucy Gray Baird also sang quite a bit more in the book than in the movie and talked about not liking to be caged. These details would have added something to the story.

Overall, the movie did a good job of portraying the 10th annual Hunger Games. It gives an understanding of why Snow becomes the way he is as well as why he hates District 12 as much as he does. It would be amazing if we could see the games from some of the other past tributes’ sides. Specifically, it would be nice to see Haymitch’s games as well as Finnick’s games.