posted
I saw it yesterday, and enjoyed it quite alot. Again, I haven't read the graphic novels, but it's made me quite keen to read them when I have the time, certainly so I know what the backstory is. I try not to go and see a film with too many preconcieved ideas about it. (I like the Harry Potter films, but have read and generally prefer the books, but I can still enjoy the HP films as film adaptations of the book.)
-------------------- Come sail your ships around me And burn your bridges down.. Posts: 232 | From: UK | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
My boyfriend and I loved it and were transfixed until the credits rolled. I've been trying to get David to read my comics for about a year, but he's never been interested. After seeing V For Vendetta, he asked to borrow my copy of the comic.
I think it stayed true to the comic while updating it for Bush rather than Thatcher. As for Moore, he's a notorious paranoid crackpot anyway, and I love him for it.
quote:Originally posted by I'mNotDedalus: I thought this thing was silly. Go see Syriana or Munich if they're still available in theatres.
Such a booming post, I know. Full of leafy green alacrity.
[hijack] IND is back! Hooray! Missed ya buddy! [/hijack]
Sort of on topic, I thought I missed the latest Sue Grafton novel. I am quite relieved that this is not the case. Carry on...
-------------------- There are people who drive really nice cars who feel that [those] cars won't be as special if other people drive them too. Where I come from, we call those people "selfish self-satisfied gits." -Chloe Posts: 6995 | From: New Mexico | Registered: Oct 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Moore is a paranoid freak who clams to support GM but drives a Honda. But that's another topic But any way, I do agree that most the time they do horrible job making cooks into movies. I can't really say this about V for Vendettea since i haven't read the graphic novel yet, but i will soon!
-------------------- i reject reality and submit my own Posts: 359 | From: Lansing, Michigan | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by cubbie: But any way, I do agree that most the time they do horrible job making cooks into movies.
Only because following a cook around all day with a movie camera is usually really boring.
Nonny
-------------------- When there isn't anything else worth analyzing, we examine our collective navel. I found thirty-six cents in change in mine the other day. Let no one say that there is no profit in philosophy. -- Silas Sparkhammer Posts: 10141 | From: Toronto, Ontario | Registered: Apr 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:posted by I'mNotDedalus I thought this thing was silly. Go see Syriana or Munich if they're still available in theatres.
Call it silly if you like, but the next guy I have relations with will be wearing a Guy Fawkes mask, not a Bob Barnes one.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Apparently, people have been making something of a fuss about the hero in this movie being a terrorist.
This is poppycock.
The omniscient point of view allows the viewer to clearly see V's motivations, thus justifying his actions and essentially destroying any potential moral ambiguity. Also, it seems to me that a "terrorist" with broad popular support is more properly called a revolutionary, particularly if he only performs a few symbolic acts of property damage and assassinates a handful of people who, as previously mentioned, had it coming.
This film would have been much more thought-provoking had it been adapted by Todd Solondz. Of course, it would also not have opened at number one.
None of this, however, takes away from it being a reasonably entertaining comic book movie. I just don't think it's anything more than that.
posted
Just browsing the new bargains that Amazon have got, and they've got the book for 40% off. Here for £10.18
Bargain.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:posted by Corwin Anyhow, I'm off to buy my Guy Fawkes mask.
And me without a ticket to Buffalo
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've just got back from watching it and, for what its worth with the novel being one of my favourites - I thought it was brilliant!
I was very pleasantly suprised by how much of Moore's dialogue has been kept and how true to the spirit of the novel it remained.
The only thing I hated was the vague romantic subplot between V & Evie. Added nothing and took a bit away in my opinion because it humanised V as an individual. To me, this undermines one of the points of the novel and indeed the film.
Still, all in all I really thought it was great! Oh, and to all of you who liked the film, I urge you to read the graphic novel - you won't be sorry.
-------------------- "You watched it. You can't UNWATCH it." Posts: 1646 | From: UK | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:posted by Chloe Woman, you're creeping me out.
But, um...there's a fish, so I was joking *ahem* I'm not really turned on by Guy Fawkes masks.
Okay, maybe a little. *hangs head in shame*
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Ah, now that's good. I respect your opinion, Faith, so if you're a fan of the book and you liked the film, I'm more hopeful.
But a romantic subplot with V? So, um, she doesn't think he's her dad, then?
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
She sort of compared him to her dad and told him he would've liked her dad, but I didn't get the impression that she thought he was her dad in the film.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Faith: Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta
[...]They do miss out the bit about the cyanide filled communion wafer though. I was sorry to that dropped..
Well, it's for marketing in the USm isn't it? You couldn't have anything that was slightly ridiculing religious beliefs, now, could you?
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Faith: Nope - but really, I could survive it. They do miss out the bit about the cyanide filled communion wafer though. I was sorry to that dropped..
I haven't read the graphic novel yet, but I intend to, so I only know about the cyanide wafer via a friend who related it to me. However, that's where I get confused.
The Bishop in the movie is presumably Anglican, insomuch as he belongs to the party that's an "all England party" so it would logically be an Anglican bishop. Now, I'm admittedly a bad Anglican, but I did get as far as taking my first communion, and I thought the CoE didn't beleive in transubstantiation.
-------------------- In politics, absurdity is not a handicap - Napoleon Bonaparte Posts: 1801 | From: The Forest City, Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm glad to know that alot of the people that read the graphic novel before seeing the movie liked the movie. At first I didn't even know i would even like the movie, because for some reason I thought it would graphically violent throught the entire movie. But anything violent in the movie was pretty much at a minimum. Even though I would of liked to know more about V's back story before I saw the movie, but I did get some idea on why he was doing things from the movie.
-------------------- i reject reality and submit my own Posts: 359 | From: Lansing, Michigan | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote: posted by Corwin I'll be in Chicago at the end of June, if that's more convenient.
Well, that would be pretty convenient...
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Faith: Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta Spoilers for V For Vendetta
[...]They do miss out the bit about the cyanide filled communion wafer though. I was sorry to that dropped..
Well, it's for marketing in the USm isn't it? You couldn't have anything that was slightly ridiculing religious beliefs, now, could you?
trollface, I forgot to say that I went to see it with someone who originally read V in installments in Warrior magazine. It's his favourite book ever and he thought the movie was great. If that helps any.
-------------------- "You watched it. You can't UNWATCH it." Posts: 1646 | From: UK | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by trollface: Well, it's for marketing in the USm isn't it? You couldn't have anything that was slightly ridiculing religious beliefs, now, could you?
Funny how this comment is sharing the same forum as the discussions about recent South Park episodes about scientology and the virgin mary. The Catholic church is satirized all the time, and the Anglican church isn't as prominent here, but its probably closer to the Catholic church than it is to some of our more radical and vocal protestant denominations. A movie like this isn't aimed at the religious right anyway, and there are other things for them to take objection to. I would think the representation in the movie of the bishop as a pedophile would be as offensive as poisoned communion to someone prone to offense. There was a lot about the back story that was editted out for time.
Posts: 2018 | From: Santa Barbara, California | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I saw the movie when it opened in Canada (Mar 17) and thoroughly enjoyed it. When you have to drive three hundred kilometers to see a movie it had better be good.
I haven't read the novels so I have nothing to compare it to though I will see if I can get them on Library loan.
What I found interesting from a casting perspective is that John Hurt, who played Winston Smith in "1984", got to be all "Big Brother" in this movie and Hugo Weaving got to be the anti-government hero after playing an "agent" in The Matrix.
-------------------- You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons. -Blazing Saddles Posts: 1074 | From: High Level, Alberta, Canada | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
This is going to sound like hearesay to Alan Moore purists, but I REALLY enjoyed the movie--moreso than the graphic novel on which it was based.
I've long been a Moore fan, but I personally believe that "V" was actually one of his weaker works... a great idea with great potential, but very poorly executed. It was almost boring.
The movie, to me, seized on that potential and developed it superbly, and invested real drama, excitement, and pathos into the story. My wife, who has never read the graphic novel (and hence approached it with unbiased eyes), absolutely loved it... she and I both agreed it was fantastic, though for different reasons.
There are some small things I could nitpick, but overall I was very satisfied... and this almost redeems Hollywood as a whole for butchering both The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell.
-------------------- High on the wind, the Highland drums begin to roll, and something from the past just comes and stares into my soul... --Mark Knopfler Posts: 3402 | From: New Bern, NC | Registered: May 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I finally read V for Vendetta. Of course the book was abviously better, but the movie was still pretty good for a book based movie. I did think it was ineresting that they updated it in the movie to fit our times though, since the book is based in the 1990's.
-------------------- i reject reality and submit my own Posts: 359 | From: Lansing, Michigan | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
You know, it's interesting... the success of "V" has sparked a lot of talk about the possibility of a big-budget Hollywood Watchmen movie.
I, for one, think that's a terrible idea. Watchmen is a vast, lengthy, and complex story... a story of subtleties and characters. If there was ever a bad recipe for the Hollywood "Under two hours, with simlistic characters and LOTS of explosions" formula, that would be it.
If Watchmen ever does hit the screens, I'd like to see it as a mini-series (perhaps animated)... the kind of thing that serious studios/venues like HBO, Showtime, or the other major cable channels would produce. Given the range of artistic freedom those venues enjoy, that's the only way I can see Watchmen being done right. As great an adaptation as "V" was, sadly, it has proven the exception rather than the rule.
-------------------- High on the wind, the Highland drums begin to roll, and something from the past just comes and stares into my soul... --Mark Knopfler Posts: 3402 | From: New Bern, NC | Registered: May 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I absolutely agree with Desert Rat. Watchmen should be at least 12 1 hour episodes. Even so, we'd lose a lot from not having the prose portions of the book. And I think it'd have to be a Sin City-style shot-for-shot adaptation, because of the sheer volume of visual clues and detail and Moores "directorial" techniques in the book.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm going to cut-and-paste this from another forum, having just seen it myself:
quote:Well, I've just got back from seeing it. Spoilers all around from here on in.
To start with, I found myself loving it. It was definitely a very different story from the comic that they were telling, regardless of whether we're talking about Evey, Finch, V or the political issues, not a one of whom is the same person or has the same journey as in the comic. But it was a fun, lightweight story, nonetheless. There was some odd re-writing and reordering of dialogue, presumably to make the characters sound more like The Architect, some dodgy acting (sorry, Natalie, you're normally great, but you were dreadful in this), and even worse accents, but it was a fun popcorn film. Some nice touches, too. The second I saw the close-up on a woman's face in the mass grave at Larkhill, I knew that that was Valerie. Nice.
Then came the Benny Hill bit. Staggeringly awful, but I was prepared to forgive it a lapse.
Then came Valerie. And I cried. I actually cried. I cry at that bit in the book, too.
And then they bungled the bit where Evey discovers that it's V that's done it all. And the film just kept going downhill from there, becoming ever less subtle, having less cohesion, having less of a point and hitting it's message home so hard that I was crying again when Evey started to make her "He was my father..." speech, but this time with laughter. It really, really was that funny.
Some specifics that I found interesting, or that were bad.
First, I find it notable that everyone says that the bit with Valerie is the stand-out bit of the film. Well, I don't think that it's coincidence that it's the only scene in the film actually taken from the book, and with the dialogue largely unaltered. There was one notable change, however. Valerie's girlfriend didn't sell her out under torture. Now I find this very interesting, as I think it's somewhat indicative of the whole approach to the film.
V, in the film, has been made more human. The Shadow Gallery is rather small and unimpressive - all we see is a couple of small, cluttered rooms - and so is V. V is not insane, and neither is he a genius. He's more self-aware in the film and more uncertain (see his embarrassment at being found playing at fencing while watching a film). He's not some Machivelian villain sitting in the middle of a spider's web, pulling at strings and manipulating people covertly, manouvering them into the places that he wants them to be. Instead, he seems to almost blunder along, narrow-mindedly pursuing a quest of revenge. A very telling change of dialoge is at the end when he kills Creedy. The line in the film is "There's more than flesh behind this mask. There is an idea." The line in the comic is "There's no flesh behind this mask". V himself has become less esoteric. He is, simply, a man.
Now, because of this, the "idea" itself has to be bigged up. The people of England get one message from V on November the 6th, and from that point on support for him grows and grows to the level where they are prepared to dress up as him en-masse and risk their lives (and thier children's lives) to stand up for his ideal without V actually doing anything they've heard about or making any announcements. A TV presenter/executive is able to get recored and on-air (so, therefore with the help of the mass of people it takes to get a telly programme out there) a vicious ridiculing of the country's violent dictator that exposes the violence and oppression of the country, while making a fool of the dictator and even showing him being killed.
In the comic, Valerie's girlfriend, under torture, gives them Valerie's name. But not here. Ruth cannot sell out Valerie to the soldiers/police, because that would taint her, and it would taint the purity of their perfect relationship. And, if that's tainted then the idea, the ideal itself is tainted and the narrative could not survive that. Valerie and Ruth have become the perfect individuals, the embodiment of the ideal that V is in the comic. In the comic, Ruth is falliable, weak and human and V is the embodiment of an idea. In the film, it's the other way around.
V doesn't wear the mask when Evey's around because he's presenting an ideal, he wears it because he doesn't want his burnt face to be seen. And he falls for her, as she falls for him, and that causes him to alter and change what his idea actually is - to change what it is that he supposedly represents.
I could go on. To be fair, I could go on and on and on. I'd like to see it again, just to go through it with more of a fine-tooth comb and to have a chance to really think about it critically, but what I've written here is just a small example, one of many things that I thought as I was watching it, that expresses what I think about the film.
On its own terms, it's a film that starts well and becomes sillier and sillier and is well and truely buried by its premise and execution. Kind of like Alien Resurrection with the plot and depth of Aeon Flux. As an adaptation of the comic, it starts as something that is telling it's own story using the iconography of the comic, and ends up as something that's got nothing to do with it whatsoever.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I didn't know anything about the movie going into it. I, like TGirl, was wondering if it were a Sue Grafton novel. For the most part, I liked the movie. I'm going to look for the book now; I think I'll like it a lot better. I'm glad the romance between V & Evey was made up for the movie, because it really bugged me. As soon as it got to "masked man takes beautiful young girl to live in cave" I started getting worried. I was thinking, "This seems like it could be a really good movie. I hope they don't ruin it now by giving it the 'Phantom of the Opera' treatment." The girl starts out scared and confused, but by the end, of course she loves him, because underneath that mask, why, they're both just people!
I was very impressed with Hugo Weaving, and I LOVED Stephen Rea in this movie. I really felt for the position his character was in.
Did anyone else notice the Chancellor looked like he'd been swallowing magic mushrooms by the fistful? His pupils were frickin' ENORMOUS!!!
-------------------- I can't put my arms down! Posts: 273 | From: California | Registered: Feb 2006
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by landmammal: The girl starts out scared and confused, but by the end, of course she loves him, because underneath that mask, why, they're both just people!
Doubly annoying because the point of the story is that he's not a person, he's an idea.
-------------------- seriously , everyone on here , just trys to give someone crap about something they do !! , its shitting me to tears. Posts: 16061 | From: UK | Registered: Sep 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:posted by trollface Then came Valerie. And I cried. I actually cried. I cry at that bit in the book, too.
I cried at that part as well, then got pissed off because there was a group of kids (I say kids, but they were probably no more than two years younger than me) who were giggling. Seriously. And I heard some homophobic comments. People.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Faith: Nope - but really, I could survive it. They do miss out the bit about the cyanide filled communion wafer though. I was sorry to that dropped..
I haven't read the graphic novel yet, but I intend to, so I only know about the cyanide wafer via a friend who related it to me. However, that's where I get confused.
The Bishop in the movie is presumably Anglican, insomuch as he belongs to the party that's an "all England party" so it would logically be an Anglican bishop. Now, I'm admittedly a bad Anglican, but I did get as far as taking my first communion, and I thought the CoE didn't beleive in transubstantiation.
But the Anglica communion still involves eating a wafer - just a wafer that represents the body of Christ, rather than actually being the body of Christ.
-------------------- Silence should never under any circumstances be construed as agreement. A lot of the time, it's simply a reflection that someone just said something so stupid that no response could possibly do it justice. - Ramblin' Dave Posts: 8528 | From: Nottingham, England | Registered: Feb 2000
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[fish]](graemlins/fish.gif)
I am quite relieved that this is not the case. Carry on...
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Oh, and to all of you who liked the film, I urge you to read the graphic novel - you won't be sorry. ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Embarrassed]](redface.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[flame]](graemlins/flame.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
People.
