Ah, Panem, how I have longed to return to your shores (kidding).

Who is responsible for “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes,” the prequel to those mostly awful “The Hunger Games” films of 2012 through 2015 directed by Gary Ross (“Seabiscuit”) and Francis Lawrence (“Constantine”) and starring Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson based on the novels by Suzanne Collins? Well, director Lawrence is back (as well as series producer Nina Jacobson). But the cast of this latest effort is new.

Englishman Tom Blyth of TV’s “Billy the Kid,” who, with his blonde ‘do, bears a resemblance to Irishman Peter O’Toole aka Lawrence of Arabia, plays Coriolanus “Coryo” Snow, the impoverished son of the late Capitol warrior Crassus Snow. “Coryo” lives in genteel poverty with his “Grandm’am” (Irish screen and stage legend Fionnula Flanagan) and cousin Tigris (Hunter Schafer, TV’s “Euphoria”). The older Snow is played by Donald Sutherland is the earlier films.

Coryo is a rebel, of course, and has been appointed a “mentor” to a “tribune,” who is a contestant in the 10th Hunger Games. She turns out to be itinerant folk singer Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler, “West Side Story”), a young woman from the Districts. Lucy Gray sings a kind of impromptu protest song at her introduction to those watching the Games at home, spiking interest in the fading event and giving hope to the Games’ inventor and behind-the-scenes-puppetmaster Dr. Volumnia Gaul (Viola Davis resplendent in a fright wig).

The Games are hosted by TV personality Lucretius “Lucky” Flickerman (a game and funny Jason Schwartzman), an apparent predecessor of Stanley Tucci’s Caesar Flickerman. Because of his heritage, Coryo is a “future president of Panem.” Snow’s best friend is Sejanus Plinth (Josh Andres Rivera, “West Side Story”), the troubled son of a very rich man. Plinth is also a “mentor.”

As in the previous films, a group of young people from the Districts, which are considered disloyal, are chosen to be Tributes and to fight to the death on TV. In the previous films, Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) fought in the Games. In this installment, Lucy Gray will fight and sing her way into the hearts of the people and Coriolanus Snow.

New Jersey-born Zegler, who also plays Snow White in a controversial and delayed-to-2025 Disney film, adopts a Nashville lilt in her speaking and singing voices here. It is obvious that she and Blyth are talented. But they must wrestle with Collins’ dialogue, adapted by screenwriters Michael Lesslie (“Assassin’s Creed”) and Michael Arndt (“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire”), and they lose.

At times, this “Hunger Games” installment is like a hard-to-follow, futuristic “Gladiator.” At other, it’s a dystopian “Lord of the Flies” meets “Game of Thrones.” Speaking of, as the mostly villainous and absurdly-named Dean Casca Highbottom, Peter Dinklage of “GOT” has gone from one “Game” to another. Life in Panem is nasty, brutish, short and – worst of all – repetitive.

Lucy Gray wears a cumbersome skirt that was once her mother’s and is made out of rainbow-colored feathers. Zegler and Blyth do not have much chemistry. The only real fun here is Davis. I could easily believe that her mad-scientist laboratory birthed this “Hunger Games” monster. After two hours-and-forty-five minutes, I was numb. If you are ravenous for Gummi Bear-colored snakes, CG Mockingjays and more Hunger Games, here they are.

(“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes” contains violence and disturbing material)

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes”

Rated PG-13. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters. Grade: C+