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My review here on my blog.
I have some other thoughts, though, as my bain has been percolating over the last 8 hours.
I was dissapointed with the removal of key dialogue from V in which he warns that while "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" may bring about the Land of Do-As-You-Please, in reality freedom and anarchy must be tempered with responsibility to prevent abject chaos, which I always felt was part of what he was trying to teach Evey. Rebellion against the government isn't enough, because once the old order has been torn down something must rise up to replace it...otherwise you'll just plunge things into the sort of chaos from whcih the old order arose in the first place.
I didn't really get a loving vibe from V, but I DID get the sense that his plans weren't as perfect as they were in the comic. In Moore's book, V had everything planned out, up to and including his own death. He seemed like an expert with psychology in addition to the weird "personal charisma" that Dr. Delia talks about him developing because of the treatments.
In the film he seems more like Batman from "Batman Begins": a guy in a funny mask and costume with a plan...but not superhuman. Moore's V WAS superhuman...or more to the point I think he was a paragon of what humans could be. His freedom was external as well as internal, he had spent years training his body, in addition to what the drugs did to him at Larkhill, and because he had no fear and no uncertainty was basically able to just go and do things that most people wouldn't because of self preservation instincts.
Then again, V in the comics WAS his ideal made manifest. He was almost a zeitgeist of revolution, unable to be stopped and unable to die until his job was done. And when it was done, for him at least, he passed the mantle on to Evey, his protege and metaphorical daughter, to be the next generation; not the revolutionary warrior, but the revolutionary architect and protector, helping people build something new from the chaos of the old order.
Really, though, there are three things I really missed that they took out:
1) The destruction of Parliament first, with the Old Bailey being destroyed after V had had his "conversation" with Lady Justice about her dalliances and affairs with Fascism
2) V's original broadcast. It was funny, and it really fit the character. The movie's broadcast seemed more like typical anarchist stuff. It was decent, and served the point, but it didn't quite capture that unique sort of insanity that so defines V in my mind.
3) Evey didn't take up the mantle as V at the end. That really gauled me. She didn't LEARN anything from V about standing up, or about the true meaning of freedom. She learned how to hide, and how to train the next big-strong-man that came upon her of how to go about doing the job that her last big-strong-man had done. At least that's kind of how it seemed to me.
There are other things I didn't like about it, but I'm tired and I prefer to keep lists down to 3 if I can.
What I DID like, however:
1) The scene with Valerie. Beautifully done.
2) I guess it was Stephen Fry's character, the talk show host, and the broadcast that got him killed. I was laughing at that, to be honest.
3) The image of V wearing a flower-printed apron and oven mitts while also wearing all black and his mask. Just...I dunno. Not at all fitting with Moore's V, but still an amusing image.
Overall, I liked the movie. It wasn't the book. There's no way to argue that. It wasn't a faithful adaptation like Sin City, but it also wasn't a complete mutilation of the character like Constantine. It stands on its own well, though is diminished when compared to Moore's utterly superior book.
V for Vendetta (graphic novel) will always remain among my favourites. V for Vendetta (film) is decent, but not among my favourites of all time. But I'll probably buy it when it comes out on DVD. Better than the other new movie I saw this month (Ultraviolet). |
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