The critics have had their say, but early this morning fans of “The Hunger Games” were able to weigh in on the big screen adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ best selling young adult novel.

The verdict?

“It was awesome,” said Boston University freshman Anna Martin, 19, after catching a midnight screening at Regal Fenway Stadium 13.

“It was just like the book,” said friend and classmate Samantha Lussier, 19.

The Fenway movie theater used thirteen screens to show the highly anticipated film in the wee hours of the morning. Seating began as early as 8:28 p.m.

Earlier this week, “The Hunger Games” set an advance ticket sale record on Fandango.com, surpassing sales for the “Twilight” franchise.

With most screenings sold out, a 3:15 a.m. showing was added, but Jamaica Plain residents Andrew Vives and Lauren Cullin lucked out when friends gave them their midnight tickets at the last minute.

“I just read all three of (the books) in the last three days,” said Cullin, 29. “I definitely enjoyed the movie. It was pretty good.”

Vives, 25, was skeptical going in, but was won over.

“I liked the movie better than the books,” he said.

Criticisms were few and far between among the fans milling outside the Brookline Avenue cinema.

“It was kind of hard to watch because of the camera,” said Boston College freshman Brenna Cass, 19, of shaky footage. “It was like ‘Cloverfield’.”

“They took out some of the back story, so if you didn’t read the books you wouldn’t understand (some of it),” said friend Greg Kane, 18.

But the consensus was that star Jennifer Lawrence (“Winter’s Bone”) knocked it out of the park as Katniss Everdeen, the teen heroine at the heart of this post-apocolyptic tale that pits child against child in a fight to the death.

“She had such dedication to the character,” said Karina Masabanda, 21, of Portland, Maine. “She just took this character and ran with it. The role was made for her.”

“Everything in the movie was made with real love and care for the original source material,” said Masabanda, a freshman at Southern Maine Community College.

By Tenley Woodman , Re-posted from BostonHerald.com