The Twilight Saga movies, adapted from Stephenie Meyers’ popular book series, and the Hunger Games movies, adapted from Suzanne Collins’ equally-popular Young Adult book series, proving that literary adaptations still had plenty of potential for success outside of the world of witches and wizards. But which series is considered the best in the eyes of critics?
Let’s look at every movie from both franchises along with their scores from critics on review aggregate site Metacritic to paint a clearer picture of each title’s highest, and lowest, scores.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon (44)
The first Twilight sequel proved to be a rocky, but still profitable, opening for the series into franchise-hood largely due to the uneventful nature of its story.
Regardless, New Moon delivered on more of what fans wanted from the romantic budding triangle of fantasy monsters and the names of its leading characters and actors became so prominent in popular culture that they were practically household names.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 (45)
Splitting the then-final book in Stephenie Meyers’ series into two parts à la Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Breaking Dawn mostly focusesses on the lead character’s marriage and pregnancy.
While the movie was still a huge financial hit at the box office, it proved to be as similarly short on plot as New Moon was from the perspective of critics.
The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 (52)
The final Twilight movie took the franchise out on a financial high note, becoming the highest-grossing movie of the franchise, whilst turning in the most median result from critics.
With the results of the first part’s finale having serious consequences for the main characters, the series goes out with its biggest battle ever and fans appear satisfied even if critics were lukewarm.
Twilight (56)
Although neither the biggest financial or critical hit of the series, the first Twilight movie was still a breakout success for its young cast and the fantasy romance genre in general.
Although its success in the realm of movie franchises and popular book adaptations may seem humble by today’s standards, its relatively small budget made it one of the most significant hits of a time period that reshaping mainstream movies as audiences now know them.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (58)
The third Twilight movie, whilst not as high-grossing as either the previous movie in the series or the following movie, proved to be the most highly-rated among critics.
Bryce Dallas Howard replaced Rachelle Lefevre in the role of the main antagonist and the extra star power certainly helped to legitimize the movie with critics but Eclipse also marked the moment when critics appeared to be the most swept up in the spirit of the franchise’s love triangle plotting .
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (64)
Similarly to Breaking Dawn, the final part in the Hunger Games story was split into two movies and the fact that this decision appears to have no clear creative merits, and was done purely for financial reasons, perhaps played a part in a greatly reduced critical ranking compared to the previous movie.
The unavoidable power of franchise fatigue, even for a franchise so short, cannot, however, be discounted and, even though it’s not by much, Mockingjay Part 1 would prove to be the lowest-rated entry into the franchise.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (65)
The fourth and final Hunger Games movie ended up being the least financially successful movie at the box office but slightly better-reviewed than the first part of the finale from the previous year.
With the revolution against the Capitol in full swing, Katniss Everdeen begins to question the intentions and loyalties of those around her and, while not as empathic a blowout as many successful franchises have, it wasn’t as controversial as so many others have also.
The Hunger Games (68)
There were many adaptations of novels aimed at young people being produced at that time in no small part due to the immense financial success of the Harry Potter franchise, but the original Hunger Games movie stood out from the crowd almost instantaneously.
Jennifer Lawrence’s central performance elevated the already-Oscar-nominated and soon-to-be Oscar-winning star to the heights of a cultural icon within a relatively short period of time and the story had plenty of political resonance for audiences as well as critics.
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (76)
Taking the top spot by quite a wide margin is the first sequel to The Hunger Games, which picks up roughly where the first movie leaves off with Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark adjusting to life as victors of the games and, as a result, political pawns in the struggle between the ruling Capitol and the rebellion.
