v for vad-ever
This post is spoiler-free for the first paragraph. Natalie Portman is hot. The ones after.. probly not going to hurt you but just as a precaution… Natalie Portman is hot. I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be going to see V for Vendetta, so the lack of enthusiasm for this movie was brewing already as I was lining up for my popcorn. Natalie Portman is hot. In short, the movie is a major disappointment. And I’m not even comparing it to the graphic novel which I’d read some years ago while attending USC. As a movie, it stinks. Natalie Portman is hot and it was the only reason I stayed till the end.
I think the Wachowski brothers never really came out of the utter-crap phase that was Matrix 2 and 3 when they did this movie. Having a no-name director at the helm did not exactly help the fast-sinking behemoth of a storyline. The major problem, to begin with, was to condense a story that developed over 10 issues of comic books (later compiled into the graphic novel I read) which resulted in a very frenetic paced movie that dips its toes in everything but lacking any depth. In some strange irony, the fact that you never see who is behind the mask V wears is like how you never see what’s behind everything the movie is trying to say.
So in the end, you ask yourself what the hell was the that all about aside from seemingly glorifying anarchists and terrorists (a fact which does not sit well with some parties), poking fun at the current socio-political situation in the United States(ditto) and allowing the world to see how hot Natalie Portman is with her head shaved. Alright, I’ll stop with that Natalie Portman thing.
The film was in no way groundbreaking; you think of Orwell’s 1984 just watching the trailer and throughout the movie I’m reminded of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World - “community, identity, stability” versus “strength through unity, unity through faith”. Of course, in Huxley’s dystopia religion had no place in a society seeking stability. However, let us not go into a compare and contrast exercise or we’ll be here all night.
Daily Kos has an explanation for those of us who are suitably unimpressed with Vendetta: “[The movie] is not enlightening, offensive, or controversial–and that’s not the fault of the film. It’s our own fault because it simply is not enough to shock us compared to daily reality.” That perhaps may be the most sobering thought – that not only fiction imagined twenty years ago are relevant to current times but that they are far less impressive than reality. The writer of the article, funny enough, enjoyed the movie far more than I did.
There are things I did like about V for Vendetta and no, not just the hot-person-who-must-no-longer-be-mentioned. Stephen Rea as Inspector Finch was damn fine casting; his was the character I have the most compassion for. I really dig the songs played on V’s contraband Wurlitzer jukebox.
In anycase, spend your money on the graphic novel. You’ll get a far more satisfying story out of that (sans Natalie Portman).
This entry was posted on Friday, March 31st, 2006 at 1:16 am and is filed under Music, Movies, TV and Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.