Thursday, March 30, 2006
V FOR VENDETTA -- Goat's Droppings
I measure movies by how often I look at my watch. I didn't look once. This is a good ol' slice of libertarian, mental chewing gum that will con multiplex morons into doing some honest-to-god thinking. I'm glad I didn't read the comic book. I was able to just see it as a new story. The film was thoughtful, challenging, and appropriately ambiguous. It took the "Phantom of the Opera" shtick to new levels. Two horns up.
I measure movies by how often I look at my watch. I didn't look once. This is a good ol' slice of libertarian, mental chewing gum that will con multiplex morons into doing some honest-to-god thinking. I'm glad I didn't read the comic book. I was able to just see it as a new story. The film was thoughtful, challenging, and appropriately ambiguous. It took the "Phantom of the Opera" shtick to new levels. Two horns up.
# posted by Doctor Lao @ 12:54 PM 
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Uh-oh--the Goat and Toner are going to the mat over this one! Actually, it's interesting to hear that you never read the comic and liked the movie, because I couldn't stop comparing it to the comic, for at least two reasons: 1. A lot of scenes are taken almost panel-for-panel from the comic, and 2. There are some unclear things in the movie which are explicit in the comic (The location of the Shadow Gallery, for example--it's just one floor down from where Sutler's boys hold their meetings). But yes, we're never meant to agree with everything V says; just because he doesn't like fascists doesn't mean he's always right. This does make for a refreshingly disturbing quality to the film, one I rarely see in most movies, where the hero is either right or learning to be right.
One big problem--it's a very episodic film, since the filmmakers wanted to cram all ten dense issues into two hours. They wisely got rid of some episodes, like Rose Almond's story from the comic, but if you'll notice, V's early vendetta against the Larkhill staff doesn't exactly fit with his plot to liberate England by overthrowing the government. This didn't seem like such a big deal with the comic, because by the time you were into V's war, you were 8 or 9 months into the series, and V's murder of Prothero et al. seemed in hindsight like a way of introducing the character. But in the confined space of 2 hours, the events look like they need to connect, and they don't--not quite.
We may be the only ones rattling on about this movie. Aparently, those multiplex morons aren't turning out in the numbers everyone hoped for, and V for Vendetta may fade away fairly soon.
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One big problem--it's a very episodic film, since the filmmakers wanted to cram all ten dense issues into two hours. They wisely got rid of some episodes, like Rose Almond's story from the comic, but if you'll notice, V's early vendetta against the Larkhill staff doesn't exactly fit with his plot to liberate England by overthrowing the government. This didn't seem like such a big deal with the comic, because by the time you were into V's war, you were 8 or 9 months into the series, and V's murder of Prothero et al. seemed in hindsight like a way of introducing the character. But in the confined space of 2 hours, the events look like they need to connect, and they don't--not quite.
We may be the only ones rattling on about this movie. Aparently, those multiplex morons aren't turning out in the numbers everyone hoped for, and V for Vendetta may fade away fairly soon.
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