Reviews for 'V for Vendetta'

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Reviews for 'V for Vendetta'

Post by Edward Yee »

Wonder what they are?

Read these two, and my suspicions of this movie lacking in real food for thought (prompted by the trailers), even as a non-fan, seem to have been confirmed...

Even with them thumbs-downing the bombing of London in the movie, I found this distinctive:
Jeff Giles wrote:"Vendetta" is based on an '80s-era graphic novel rife with outrage over Margaret Thatcher's England. But, as adapted by the Wachowski brothers and directed by their protégé James McTeigue, the movie plays like a clumsy assault on post-9/11 paranoia. It references "America's war," uses imagery direct from Abu Ghraib and contains dialogue likely to offend anyone who's not, say, a suicide bomber. Buildings are symbols, V tells a haunted young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman), after saving her from some vile, rampaging cops: "Blowing up a building can change the world." The filmmakers have insisted that V is not intended to be a hero. Which is bollocks. The movie grants him absolute moral superiority from beginning to end. Sure, Evey tells him he's a monster—and then tries to make out with his mask. In a movie, when the pretty girl falls in love with you and stays in love with you, you're a hero.
And from TIME:
Early in the comics he rescued a woman named Evey from government thugs, and she became his sidekick; later on he tortured Evey, to "help" her see his point of view. V was a freedom fighter, no question, but Moore never let you forget that he was also a terrorist, and as such he was both hero and villain. That was the sick, sad genius of the comic book: the government had taken everything from V, even his goodness.
And at the end:
"I think the most important thing is that people will go home and fight about it," [Natalie Portman] says. "We all realize that at a certain point, violence might be the only means of effectively combatting injustice, but it's always going to be subjective — what injustice is great enough to provoke you to harm someone else?"

Here's another tough question: whether V for Vendetta is the movie that will start that conversation. The kind of delicate ambiguity that Portman talks about is hard to achieve within the narrow constraints of a popcorn movie — morally speaking, they tend to be shot in black and white — and V may come off as a bit too noble for the movie's good. As both the product of violence and its perpetrator, he should be doubly twisted. "What was done to me was monstrous!" V snarls. "And they created a monster," Evey replies. But if V plays as a Phantom of the Opera monster, a Beauty and the Beast monster, a monster with a sweet, sad center, he becomes less than he should be: a mere action hero. Maybe that's a lot of nuance to ask of an action movie, but terrorism is a subject that demands nothing less. Give poor, tortured V back his goodness, and you take away his greatness.
Hmm.
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Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Wasn't V for Vendetta a thinggy about reptiloid aliens that came to earth asking for water but were actually eating people or something?
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Post by Ghost Rider »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Wasn't V for Vendetta a thinggy about reptiloid aliens that came to earth asking for water but were actually eating people or something?
That's V.
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Post by Spanky The Dolphin »

No, that was just V.
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Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Oh... :oops:
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Post by VT-16 »

I feared this ever since I saw the trailer. Take away the comic-connection and all you're left with is a more British Matrix.

I think this is another, lesser legacy of the Wachowskis, all big sci-fi action movies nowadays feature ludicrous, superficial fight sequences with guns and leather. Thanks alot, asshats. >:(
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

You might want to be careful with that spoiler in the second quote there. I've read "V for Vendetta" but I'm betting there are people on this board that haven't which intend to.
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

On topic, the thing about "V for Vendetta" is that V in it wasn't really human anymore. He was too big. He was a symbol, not really a man. That is something I really dread about the movie. They seem content on dumbing down the characters, like making V into a mere British Batman and Adam Susan into a screaming Big Brother character. And that really sucks.

I'm still withholding judgement til I see it, but I'm coming to understand why Moore didn't want this name on it.
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Post by Edward Yee »

Sorry about that Gil Hamilton. However, the second quote isn't a spoiler for the movie but contrasts the flick with the comic.
VT-16 wrote:I feared this ever since I saw the trailer. Take away the comic-connection and all you're left with is a more British Matrix.

I think this is another, lesser legacy of the Wachowskis, all big sci-fi action movies nowadays feature ludicrous, superficial fight sequences with guns and leather. Thanks alot, asshats. >:(
Amen. Doesn't help that it gives license for utter babble that's not even worthy of being called psuedoscience... this is why I'm not even giving Ultraviolet a chance. Fuck, I ignored the leather, the body, the guns and the swords -- and frankly, I'd have sided with the suit and his 700 soldiers, out of conviction that Violet was in the wrong.

IIRC, the trailers for V for Vendetta had him being as more dogmatic and doctrinaire. :P
Gil Hamilton wrote:On topic, the thing about "V for Vendetta" is that V in it wasn't really human anymore. He was too big. He was a symbol, not really a man. That is something I really dread about the movie. They seem content on dumbing down the characters, like making V into a mere British Batman and Adam Susan into a screaming Big Brother character. And that really sucks.

I'm still withholding judgement til I see it, but I'm coming to understand why Moore didn't want this name on it.
Dumbing down is the norm in Hollywood. >_> I don't know Adam Susan, but I could tell from the trailer (and reading the review above about all of the cliches attached) that critical thinking (read: intelligently vivisecting both sides until, at the end, the concept of freedom -- as seems to have been defined in opposition to all of the specifics ofthe regime -- is the last standing) was thrown out of the window too. Oh wait, to leave it in would leave an "imperfect" hero... see that first quote.

To paraphrase, "We can't have two morally ambiguous sides (both compromised) instead of a hero and a villain!" :roll:
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Post by Joe »

If the two rumors I've heard about this movie are true - specifically concerning V's introductory speech and the ending - than Alan Moore was being a gentleman when he called the movie "imbecilic."
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Post by Edward Yee »

May I ask re: those two rumors? (With spoiler warnings.)
"Yee's proposal is exactly the sort of thing I would expect some Washington legal eagle to do. In fact, it could even be argued it would be unrealistic to not have a scene in the next book of, say, a Congressman Yee submit the Yee Act for consideration. :D" - bcoogler on this

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Post by Joe »

Edward Yee wrote:May I ask re: those two rumors? (With spoiler warnings.)
SPOILERS, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD:

In V's opening speech to Evey, he apparently rattles off as many words starting with V as he can for alliteration or whatever, and Evey responds with "Are you one of those crazy people?"

At the end of movie, an army of people with Guy Fawkes masks joins V in the wave of anarchy he unleashes on England.

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Post by Vendetta »

Joe wrote:
At the end of movie, an army of people with Guy Fawkes masks joins V in the wave of anarchy he unleashes on England.


NNNYYEAAARGHH! That's so clearly not the fucking point of anything V stands for. The concept of anarchy has clearly passed the Wachowski's by at high altitude. Hate! Rage!

I could probably handle stupid alliteration. They were never a dab hand with dialogue, even when they didn't suck, but that's just missing the point to such a complete and utter extent that they should watch out it doesn't spike them in the asshole
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Post by LadyTevar »

Vendetta wrote:
Joe wrote:
At the end of movie, an army of people with Guy Fawkes masks joins V in the wave of anarchy he unleashes on England.


NNNYYEAAARGHH! That's so clearly not the fucking point of anything V stands for. The concept of anarchy has clearly passed the Wachowski's by at high altitude. Hate! Rage!

I could probably handle stupid alliteration. They were never a dab hand with dialogue, even when they didn't suck, but that's just missing the point to such a complete and utter extent that they should watch out it doesn't spike them in the asshole
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

Joe wrote:In V's opening speech to Evey, he apparently rattles off as many words starting with V as he can for alliteration or whatever, and Evey responds with "Are you one of those crazy people?"

At the end of movie, an army of people with Guy Fawkes masks joins V in the wave of anarchy he unleashes on England.
That pisses me the hell off. The first one is kind of goofy, though V does have a passion for using the letter in clever ways.

However, the second is fucking retarded. V symbolizes freedom and individuality. If everyone takes up his mask, they aren't free, they've become a copy of him. They've assumed his identity, rather than developed their own. It's not the Land of Do-As-You-Please, that's not anarchy, that's the exact opposite of V.
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Post by Joe »

Alan Moore Video interview

If you're 56k, don't even think about it. I'm on DSL and it took FOREVER for me to download. But it's very cool.
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Post by Joe »

SPOILER:

link

This image pretty much confirms my worst fears about the ending.
Last edited by Joe on 2006-03-15 01:03am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

Joe wrote:This image pretty much confirms my worst fears about the ending.
Goddamn. It doesn't sound like they understood what V was about at all. Everyone taking up the mantle of V in a massive identical horde where no one has an identity is the exact sort of thing that V was totally against.
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Post by Stark »

What kind of anarchist is he if he raises an army of faceless, identical clones? The damn book was about personal freedom and responsibility, not being on the winning side. :(
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

What I'm fearing now is that it will be a close to the events of the book but without any understanding of the philosophy of the book. Plus, I bet they are going to make Evey a fucking revolutionary after her transformation rather than a creator.
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Post by Stark »

I think it was obvious enough that V allowed himself to be killed - and Evey to take over his mantle - because he understood that he *wasn't* a creator, but she was. I thought that was why he wanted her to understand where he was coming from, but didn't want her to be like him. She even explicitly disavows V's destructive methods at the end of the book!
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Post by Gil Hamilton »

Stark wrote:I think it was obvious enough that V allowed himself to be killed - and Evey to take over his mantle - because he understood that he *wasn't* a creator, but she was. I thought that was why he wanted her to understand where he was coming from, but didn't want her to be like him. She even explicitly disavows V's destructive methods at the end of the book!
She did it right after her transformation and before when she swore that she'd never help him kill again. That was the point of Evey telling V to let the rose for Gordon's murderer grow. She was the second face of anarchy that V was talking about.
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Post by lgot »

While i agree the this image sucks and I have no hope for the movie, the first critics just have no idea what he is talking about and I can not figure anything bad about it from him - V is indeed not an hero, and an hero is not a guy who is kissed by the pretty girl. And V is a vile terrorist who do lots of shocking things. At least no one made V adquire super-hero morality.
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Post by Ghost Rider »

Joe wrote:SPOILER:

link

This image pretty much confirms my worst fears about the ending.
Y'know what's the saddest part?

They probably saw the end of the book, and thought this is what it meant....
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