The Hunger Games Prequel’s Runtime Isn’t The Problem (But It Contributes To It)

The overall runtime of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes has been a topic of concern, but the movie’s length simply contributes to an even bigger problem for the new franchise prequel. At 2 hours and 38 minutes long, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes sets out to trace the origin and rise of Panem’s authoritarian dictator, Coriolanus Snow, played by Tom Blyth in the prequel and Donald Sutherland in the original films. Although Snow was the main antagonist of the original Hunger Games movies, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes allows his side of the story to be told in the franchise’s longest movie entry to date.