Young Coriolanus Snow (Tom Blyth) is allocated Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) from District 12. She is a travelling singer with no suitable skills but Snow believes he can steer her just enough to claim the prize. While his family is famous they have fallen on hard times and he's willing to do anything to win.
No good will come of this.
This prequel to one of the big YA franchises of the noughties surprisingly doesn't suck. We get an origin story for the big villain of the main event and another tour of dystopian Panem.
They avoid repeating too much of the previous material with the games themselves being far less elaborate and just very early stirrings of a rebellion as this is decades earlier when Captol's grip is tighter and made more tangible by defeat in the war being a personal memory for all but younger children.
It's long. Just when I thought it was ending a bit abruptly suddenly there was a whole separate third act. It aims for epic and doesn't completely miss: its biggest failing is in making Snow too sympathetic.
If you enjoyed the originals you'll probably enjoy this 7/10, but you won't love it. Anybody else: don't bother.