V For Vendetta: The Movie

-- Chuck_Tatum (sappy_papp...), March 18th, 2006.

um, you do know that the US gov't has experimented on unwitting citizens many times in the past, right? do the tuskeegee experiments ring a bell? the radiation experiments that clinton belatedly apologised for? or the cloud of bacteria sprayed over san francisco by the navy? MK-ULtra experiments?

but you're right, the movie was kinda "meh" though

ilx, help me decide: should i go see this or "she's the man"?
That's a tough one. "She's The Man" is being called this generation's "Mean Girls," so...

She's the man, obv.

-- vahid (vfoz...), March 18th, 2006 9:10 PM. (vahid) (later) (link)

That's the problem, though--IT WASN'T. It should have been, and it could have been, but it wasn't. Batman Begins was easily FAR superior. In fact, as a hollywood comic book movie, it was decidedly mediocre. The direction, cinematography, production design, and most of the acting (Stepehen Fry, Stephen Rea being the notible exceptions, Hugo Weaving gets points for trying VERY HARD) was decidedly uninteresting. Especially the directing. CLOSE-UPS ON FACES MEANS IT'S SERIOUS BUSINESS.

As for film vs. comic books, it was as good as adaptation as one could expect, they just didn't focus on what *I* would have liked to have seen a focus on--namely, the questionable morality of V's actions (most notably changed in his broadcast to the populace, where he sided with the people instead of blaming them for their government) and the "it could happen IN YOUR COUNTRY" air of the government in the comic. I felt the "OMG A CONSPIRACY" explanation was in place to make it seem less of an all-too-real threat of elected fascism and simply the well-planned coup of a few people. Honestly, all those reviewers bitching about the "anti-US/UK sentiment" are really hypersensitive and should never be allowed to read the comic lest their poor little brains explode for being so offended. I felt that the absence of Rose Almond was SORELY missed, as it kind of took all the emotional strength out of the "this government sucks" argument. Also making her parents into "activists" instead of just people with "the wrong kind of past" made the government less scary.

In conclusion, Stephen Fry stole the fucking movie away from everyone else and ran with it, I am mad V didn't show Delia his face, and that whole "love story" thing was gross.

i got bored w/ "batman begins" about 2/3rd of the way through. let's stop acting like "batman begins" is the "citizen kane" of superhero movies. there was a bunch of garbage in that film, too.

"v for vendetta" = "darkman" done right!

The best superhero movie thus far (haven't seen V yet) is Hellboy. Even that wasn't as good the second time around, it lost a lot going from big-screen to DVD.

b-b-b-b-but...he was a NINJA. :(((((

Oh and props to Hellboy! So underrated.

And, of course, Howard the Duck (or did the comic book come after?).

It predates the film by about a decade or so. My cousin Alan drew a few issues in the mid-70s.

Okay, I accept the likely possibility that that speech is worded differently in the book (which I haven't read) but what part of "if you want to know who to blame, you should look in a mirror" was ambiguous in that speech?

Seriously, do some of you EVER pay attention to ANYTHING you watch or hear????

-- Hal! Jordan! HAL! JORDAN! (b4rim4_...), March 19th, 2006.

oh in this one she magically changes instead of dressing up?

HA HA! Big time! I knew he seemed familiar.

The sequence with Evey's torture and the note and everything was terrific, and I loved all the scenes with the crusty, disinterested cop (who is never revealed to have a heart of gold or anything).

(Also noted that despite the 30-year time difference and apparent destruction of continental Europe or somesuch, they were still making 2006 BMWs. Fascist cops drive like this...)

-- Dan (Wow) Perry ([email protected]), March 19th, 2006 4:08 PM. (Dan Perry) (later) (link)

I DID hear that line, but the overall tone of the speech was drastically different in the book, which had a much more scathing indictment of the populace. I didn't mean to say he let the population off entirely, just that the general focus of the speech had changed from an indictment/warning to a call for an uprising.

anyway like i said above i liked that movie V avoided some of the really shitty stuff in the original, but overall... i dunno. despite really liking a lot of it, the way they went with the ending still bothers me.

and the best superhero movies are:

superman
blade ONE

http://img23.imagevenue.com/loc24/th_87460_sey_12.jpg

The thing about that Valerie letter, and some of V's speeches, was that they dangled profundity in front of you, which didn't sit very well with the hokum of the rest of it. It was frustrating. Easier just to write it all off as enjoyable exploitation flick, as Mark Kermode did, but I couldn't quite do that.

Anna Paquin would have made a good Evey, I think.

I don't mind the idea of V being mad and not a hero, and he suggested as much himself when he said that for every reaction there was an opposite reaction, that he was a monster born of their monstrosity. But there's accepting that idea in principle, and then there's feeling like a film coherently conveys it, and I don't think it did. It cast him as the clear-thinking, righteous crusader too often. It's not a problem if V himself is incoherent – but the film shouldn't be.

who was it who said every superhero movie is really about the moment the main character goes from being a "normal" to being a superhero?

i think every superhero movie is sort of a let-down after the "becoming a superhero" scene. def for me, the climax (and best part of this film) was evey in the rain, and just like "batman begins" once that point had passed the movie wasn't so great anymore.

it's too bad that the cop's imagined ending (the girl getting shot, brixtoners retaliating, riots starting, etc) was so much more exciting than the actual ending.

as for the poster who asked what and how had made the family political after st mary's ... i think they showed the little girl (evey) passing out biohazard-marked fliers. i guess the family just became hardline greens or something. or maybe the turned into "us gov't did 9.11" type crazies.

or, do we need to know EXACTLY HOW bruce wayne ends up in rural tibet? and how the the league of shadows tracked him to rural tibet? etc etc.

if you measure v for vendetta by the superhero yardstick it makes good sense. if you try to treat it like a police procedural, you're being unfair.

But there's accepting that idea in principle, and then there's feeling like a film coherently conveys it, and I don't think it did. It cast him as the clear-thinking, righteous crusader too often

you can say what you want about bin laden, but you can't argue with "clear-thinking" and "righteous". why should he not be clear-thinking? i mean, part of what makes him the particular superhero that he is is his singleminded doggedness about his revenge. he's a moral juggernaut! and anyway i think that "monstrous" doesn't need to mean "confused and wrong". you can be "clear-thinking, righteous" and still be monstrous! (see: bin laden, bush, etc)

well. v never said "i'm out to spread valerie's message of love". he wanted bloody revenge for her death (and his own mutilation) and that was it. there's no reason why v shouldn't be the inverse of valerie's ideal (every action produces it's opposite, right?). the person who really ended up picking up that thread and going with it was evey, who lived out valerie's happy ending in real life: shaved-headed but safely underground (in the fake ID sense), doing her own thing, watching old movies.

does it make me a bad person that i was disappointed that the soldiers stood down?

i think every superhero movie is sort of a let-down after the "becoming a superhero" scene. def for me, the climax (and best part of this film) was evey in the rain, and just like "batman begins" once that point had passed the movie wasn't so great anymore.

oh yeah, i was thinking the exact same thing about BB today... i was loving it up to the point where he becomes batman, then i fell asleep. but i think i already said that exact thing upthread so never mind!

i don't understand why they didn't have the scene of evey putting on the v mask! and i was NOT onboard for the crowd of "V"s. i hate crowd/mob scenes in movies, they're always so corny no matter what.