I still don't get how these comparisons between Twilight and The Hunger Games started. Are there that many Twilight fans that read THG books and are now obsessed?
Because both feature a teenage girl who in the course of the story has two different boys trying to win her affections. And because the books came out just a few years after the
Twilight series started, and because they're now both successful movie adaptations.
I can see where they would make the connection. But I read both the
Twilight and
Hunger Games books, and there's really no comparison beyond that.
Twilight is really a just a romance story (and a lousy one), while
Hunger Games just happens to have it as part of a much bigger story.
It's kind of how like in the original
Star Wars, it seemed like Luke and Han Solo both had a thing for Princess Leia. You knew she'd end up with one of them, but they had an Empire to destroy first.
Hunger Games improves on the love triangle arc because Katniss truly had feelings for both of them. She'd always loved Gale, but she went through this whole thing with Peeta, and he was really the only one who understood what that had been like. She was almost like a war veteran coming home. She couldn't be the person she was before, but she's trying to be.
With Katniss, you really don't know which one she was going to end up with as the books go on, or if she'll even end up with any of them, or if they'll both even make it to the end of the story. That's one thing that kept it interesting. It's not the focus of the story, but it's there and it's worth following. Even the choice she does make in the end is complicated.
With Bella, she was always going to end up with Edward. She kinda liked Jacob, but that was just never going to happen. There was no suspense there. And the way that wrapped up was ridiculous.
As far
Twilight's "brand", it's fine. It can't un-make the money it made just because a better series came along. There's only one movie left, and by the time that comes out this fall
Hunger Games will be on DVD and the
Twilight fans will be out in force again.
Having the last
Harry Potter film out last year (again, a much better book series) didn't mess up
Breaking Dawn's box office receipts, I don't expect
Hunger Games to do anything to
Breaking Dawn 2's grosses either.
