So I Watched "The Hunger Games" last night...

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss... yeah, she's 17

I finally watched the Hunger Games last night.  I say finally because I have had the DVD fro NetFlix for a while, but the running time of 2 hours and 20 minutes seems like a lot of time to invest in a teen movie.  And, truth be told, the first Twilight movie put me rather off that entire genre.
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But I watched it last night.
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So, I kind of loved the allegory of the 1%.  That I thought was funny, interesting and twisted.  The inability of the masses to have any say was so very "liberal".  Probably a more radical (and archly realistic) portrayal of political powerlessness than in any other recent movie.
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Jennifer Lawrence.  Well, I couldn't see her as a teen heroine.   No fault of her acting.  In fact because of her acting in Silver Linings Playbook.  Maybe a zillion teenage girls will always see her as Katniss.  I will always see her as Tiffany from Silver Linings Playbook.  She was mesmerizing in that role.  Amazing.  Unforgettable.
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Jennifer Lawrence as crazy Tiffany - totally believable; Hot and SuperNuts

The "unforgettable" part as Tiffany reduced Katniss - to my eyes - as imminently forgettable.
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It was also an odd, but entirely understandable, choice to have Katniss kind of ... stumble into the winner's circle.  For a game where 24 kids have to kill each other to come out with 1 winner, she did remarkably little killing.  I guess that on-screen having her put an arrow throw other kids might reduce your sympathy towards the lead - but it was still odd.  She played a steely eye'd, passive winner.  Passive lead characters are dull.  The whole "Lord of the Flies" last hour was kind of a waste - except to show the producer manipulation.