With a record-breaking weekend, The Hunger Games premiere definitely satisfied fan’s expectations and initiated what could be the largest trend since the Harry Potter books and the Twilight Saga. The film, which is adapted from the book written by Suzanne Collins, provides a balance between action, special effects and exceptional performances by Jennifer Lawrence, Stanley Tucci, Liam Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson.
My friends and I, being fans of the series, decided to attend the midnight premiere. We were so ecstatic for the film; we had to see it before everyone else. After much deliberation and debate whether we should purchase the tickets or not, we made our minds and bought the tickets the week before the premiere. We were lucky and found tickets on Fandango, out of the last 12 remaining tickets.Once we bought them, there was no turning back; we were officially attending the Hunger Games premiere. May I say, it truly was a nice experience. However, there were a few details that made the night even more interesting…
Our excitement was uncontainable while we were getting ready. Last minute, we decided to dress up all vibrant and colorful, like the people from the Capitol. So there I was, trying to make a somewhat stylish, capitol worthy outfit.
We weren’t even in the theater yet and people were giving us weird looks. Being the premiere, we assumed more fans would dress up but apparently we were wrong. Upon entering, we got the tickets and made sure we got good seats. Then again, assuming it would’ve been somewhat crowded, we raced for the good seats only to find a relatively empty theater.
The four of us were quite surprised to see few fans dressed up. After finding our seats, we looked around to talk to some people, but no one seemed inviting. Suddenly, at the middle of the theater, we saw this bright pink wig and immediately headed that direction, assuming the person was a fan like us.
As it turns out, the girl was part of a large group who were just as excited for the film as my friends and I were. Not to mention, they were kind enough to answer a few questions.
When asked if they were excited for The Hunger Games premiere they all agreed.
Samantha Vargas, a teenage girl from the group said, “I cry everytime I see the commercial. Like legit tears come out of my eyes!”
When asked who was their favorite character they agreed in Peeta, played by Josh Hutcherson. Catelina Velez, another girl from the group said “Katniss is brave and bitter while Peeta is a true sweetheart. They balance each other out.” While her friend, Elaine Pajarga expressed “Katniss and Gale are too much alike, their relationship wouldn’t work out.”
When asked to choose between the Harry Potter series, the Twilight Saga and the Hunger Games, they had a hard time selecting their favorite but agreed that they felt more crowd buzz in the Harry Potter premieres.
As Bridgette Davis said, “I’d say Harry Potter. People go all out for them and dress up more.” Ciara Alvarez expressed, “Yeah, I’m not going to say I hate Twilight but I like the Hunger Games more because they have an actual storyline.”
Sisters Bridgette and Claire Davis spent two hours getting ready for the premiere and did a couple of shopping trips for two weekends straight. When asked how their school was reacting to the movie, Jackie Visada said, “People who never read were buying the books just to know what was going on.”
Pajorga added some humor into the conversation by narrating an anecdote from her class, “People would randomly shout ‘I volunteer as tribute’ for anything the teachers asked for. It was quite funny really.”
When asked which was their favorite book from the trilogy, Velez expressed “I love them in the exact order they came out. The first one was great, Catching Fire is good and Mockingjay, well… What happened happened. But if I had to choose, it would be Catching Fire.”
Now, when asked if they thought what occurred in the Hunger Games could happen in real life Bridgette Davis commented “I mean, it’s brutal but if you think about it, with the government having complete control but it could happen.”
Claire Davis also added “Yeah, and with reality T.V. also.” Vargas explained,” We already watch people drink themselves sick… it could happen.” And Velez had to say, “For some reason people like watching other people die. I read an analysis of the books that said how even though we knew the books were about child slaughter, we read them anyways and that made us as bad as the Capitol is made out to be.”
By the end, when asked if they had any final comments, Davis couldn’t contain her excitement and said, “I can’t wait! We all have school tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. because our parents won’t let us skip but it’s worth it.” On that final note, Elaine Pajorga added, “I have a countdown on my phone. There is only two hours, eight minutes and 24 seconds remaining.” And with that, the girls cheered and returned to their chattering.
Finally, it was 12:01 a.m., the lights dimmed, and the show began.
If you haven’t seen the Hunger Games by now, I highly encourage you to. Besides the fact that the movie stayed relatively loyal to the book, the actors provided stunning performances and the visual effects were excellent.
The movie was well made and is worthy of watching. And remember, happy hunger games and may the odds be ever in your favor.
The paper’s adviser Dan Reimold, unfamilliar with The Hunger Games series, sits down with an impassioned fan to learn the basics of the worldwide phenomenon.
Q: OK, to start, quite simply, what is The Hunger Games? What is this series all about?
Sieradzki: The Hunger Games is written by Suzanne Collins. It is a juvenile fantasy fiction novel, a trilogy actually. It has grabbed everyone’s attention — from fifth graders to the moms who enjoy it. It covers a post-apocalyptic America called Panem. Panem is divided into 13 different districts and the 13th district rebelled against the communist Capitol government. Because they rebelled, there is now something called ‘The Hunger Games’ held every year.
[The Games] take two children from each district and puts them in a gladiator-esque environment where they [compete in a live, televised, fight to the death]. It’s basically a way for the Capitol to keep [the citizens of Panem] in their place. They’re purposefully exploiting these children in order to hurt the people and scare them into complying with the laws…It’s called The Hunger Games because they’re competing for rations of food for the year. The stakes are very high, especially for Katniss’s district, which is poor and hasn’t had a winner in 20 years.
Q: What is it about The Hunger Games that people love so much?
Sieradzki: It’s really about the main character, Katniss Everdeen. She’s a strong-willed, female character that I think a lot of girls reading the novel really identify with — especially coming off Twilight where you have a main character who is basically a puppet and does nothing. Katniss has fire to her. She has spunk.
Originally it’s her sister who’s chosen for the Games and Katniss stands up and says, “No, I’ll volunteer to take her place.” She has a lot of tenacity and speaks her mind. She is kind of a voice for the voiceless. I think that’s what people identify with and find so compelling to keep reading. You also have a little bit of romance in there. And it has the action and punch that guys love to read.
Q: Is it fair to say it’s more a female-driven phenomenon?
Sieradzki: As you go on through the trilogy, it starts appealing more to both sides. You begin… relating to all the characters. In The Hunger Games, it’s a boy and a girl tribute that go compete from each district. Katniss is the girl tribute [from her district] and the boy tribute is Peeta. A lot of readers can also identify with Peeta. He has a pretty strong story behind him too…he’s not just an “Edward”, sitting there sparkling for Katniss to look at.
Q: A lot of media chatter holds up Hunger Games as the next Harry Potter or Twilight. How does Hunger Games stand out from those popular series?
Sieradzki: Fifteen-year-old me loved Twilight. Twenty-year-old me doesn’t like it now, looking back and seeing how ridiculous it is. It’s really just a whiny girl; the plot moves nowhere.
I can see Hunger Games is comparable to Harry Potter. It has the strong characters and strong story behind it. And it speaks to a bigger issue of “How far is too far? How far will you go to be entertained?” I finished the trilogy this summer and it was haunting — t sits with you for awhile after you finish reading it.
Check out the rest of the interview on USA TODAY College.
Xelmarie Medina can be reached at xelmymedina@gmail.com.