I was apprehensive about this movie, because I really like the graphic novel on which it was based. The trailers did not inspire confidence since they were edited as if for an action movie. I also read recently that Alan Moore (the graphic novel author) demanded that his name not be associated with the film. So expectations were low, but I still wanted to see it. So I took a break from unpacking to go catch an afternoon matinee today. <\/p>\n
Good news is that it exceeded my expectations. Bad news is, not by much. <\/p>\n
The rest of this review will involve spoilers of both the movie and the graphic novel so stop reading now if you want to remain spoiler-free.<\/p>\n
Things I liked: Natalie Portman was excellent. She made Evey work as more than a plot-advancing device. I liked that the Wachowski brothers agreed with me that Evey’s imprisonment is the core of the story – that arc really worked for me. I thought the guy that played Finch (Stephen Rea?) was fabulous and his story line fit together better than in the graphic novel. I liked most of the cuts they made to the plot – I tend to skim through most of part 2 in the graphic novel myself. I liked that the bollocks girl from the graphic novel was chosen as a people representative.<\/p>\n
Things I didn’t like. I hated the Hollywood ending with the people mysteriously marching in step – I think the graphic novel ending would have been far more effective. I disliked how V was treated whimsically – his opening speech, while dizzyingly acrobatic, also made him sound insane instead of visionary. I thought that the attempts to make it currently relevant (with references to terrorists and biotech viruses) were heavy handed. I disliked the movie’s version of Gordon. I disliked the scene just after Evey gets out of prison – I preferred the graphic novel version (and thought it was interesting that Evey’s line of “I felt like an angel” was left as “I felt…”)<\/p>\n
I also wish that the ideas that I loved about the graphic novel were even alluded to in the movie. How people need to take responsibility for themselves. I would have loved if they could have included V’s line distinguishing chaos from anarchy (chaos is “the land of take-what-you-want. Anarchy means ‘without leaders’; not ‘without order’. With anarchy comes an age of Ordnung, of true<\/i> order, which is to say voluntary<\/i> order”).<\/p>\n
Anyway.<\/p>\n
Decent movie for what it was, with a few shiver moments as they got something right. Go read the graphic novel if you haven’t. I’d lend it out, but, well, none of y’all live near me right now.<\/p>\n
P.S. Almost fully unpacked. Still need to throw out a ton of trash, and put up a few pictures, but all but two boxes are unpacked. And everything fits! Just barely! I even stopped by the store after the movie, bought some groceries, and made dinner this evening<\/p>\n
P.P.S. Apologies for incoherence – it’s weird writing this post from the Sidekick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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