Movie Review: V for Vendetta

As I mentioned yesterday, I saw a couple of movies last weekend and I thought I would share my thoughts (wow, that was almost as awkward as Austin Powers' "Allow myself to introduce... myself."). I talked about The Hills Have Eyes yesterday, which I didn't enjoy. Today, I talk of V for Vendetta, a movie I did enjoy.

V for Vendetta is a story adapted from a comic miniseries of the same title. I believe it was done by Alan Moore who is widely revered in that medium. Alan Moore has had two prior efforts made into movies, both of which he hated. Those works, From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen were a mixed bag. From Hell was a pretty solid movie with great performances from Johnny Depp and Robbie Coltrane. I enjoyed it immensely. LXG was a fun bit of idiocy, with a pretty good cast of mostly no-names and character actors cashing large paychecks (Sean Connery has never been above this kind of thing). The movie itself was an occasionally fun farce that took itself too seriously or not seriously enough. It was in that zone we call a tweener, not funny enough to be a comedy but too funny to be a real drama. Oh yeah, and not enough of either to be very funny on an unintentional comedy scale.

The other people of note to work on V are the famous flying Wachowski Brothers. They are famous for the Matrix trilogy and all associated properties and line extensions. They have other film credits, but this is the first thing since the Matrix that doesn't have the Matrix anywhere in the title. Most people would be pretty excited except that the Matrix crapped out in the third picture which was poorly conceived and not all that good. Certainly not up to the standards of the series as a whole (of which, I think the second is the best film, though I'm willing to accept a general downward trend in quality argument. I will let my DVD collection speak for me here, where I own only the second, and that for the following pieces of film:

1. The Merovingian
2. Jet Li
3. Everything that happens from the time our characters meet the Merovingian till the end of the freeway sequence, all of which might be the best extended action sequence ever caught on film, and certainly since the bus portion of Speed, the most narratively perfect action movie ever made.
   

The first one, I felt was very derivative and not worthy of my ownership, though I enjoyed it mostly.) At any rate, there had to be some anticipation for this movie, as it's the first Wachowski Joint since the Matrix wrapped.

The last person we shall discuss in the before is the biggest star, box office wise, in all of Hollywood who you don't know. Can you tell me the name of the actor who has the biggest box office between 1999 and 2003? If it isn't Hugo Weaving, I dunno who it is. What's that? Who's Hugo Weaving? Lemme give you the two roles that you might know him from, then you will know what I'm talking about here:

1. Agent Smith in the Matrix movies
2. Elrond, the king of the elves in the Lord of the Rings movies

That's as much Box Office as all of Titanic and then some. He gets to play the titular character here, as he takes his first shot at leading a big action flick/think piece, although you could argue that he really propped up Keanu for a large portion of the Matrix movies. Very exciting times in the Weaving household, except that you never see his face. Oh well, better luck next time. I heard David Cronenberg on Fresh Air the other day talking about working with Christopher Walken on the Dead Zone and Jeff Goldblum on the Fly. He said that every actor has a particular rhythm to their speech and it's a lot of fun to work with people with very peculiar rhythms. I figure there is like a 95% chance that Weaving and Cronenberg work together in the future. I enjoy hearing Weaving talk almost as much as I enjoy Shattner and Walken. Since those guys are getting old, maybe the next decade belongs to Weaving. This would be a good place to start I guess.

The story of the film goes like this: It's an alternate future, where England has become a religious dictatorship in reaction to a terroristic biological attack with a weapon that would become known as the Saint Mary's Virus. They rule with an iron hand and not much visible ideology. I guess that makes them neoconservatives, but that's a discussion for another day.

Against these brutes stands a man in a Guy Fawkes mask, hideously scarred and tortured by many members of the ruling class. He goes by V and he has a major Vendetta. Into his world comes Evey, a girl who has, like most of England, been wronged by the evil fascists. The story is more about little Evey than it is about V and his Vendetta.

Against V stands a detective who slowly uncovers the horrid truth. The terrorist plot was a sham to cover a horrible plot. Big Pharma teams up with the conservative wing of the conservative party to manufacture a viral agent, release it into the population, and then charge like mad for the cure to it. The politicos then blame the disease on foreigners, homosexuals, and anyone else that the uptight don't like. Hillarity fails to ensue.

The movie, as a whole, is pretty fun, though long in the last half hour. In fact, the Vendetta portion is way more interesting that the completely BS assembly of the good people of England to overthrow the government, while wearing Guy Fawkes masks. Though you do want to see V win and topple the government in the process, the eventual manner of his victory is a little icky and sappy.

I dunno that this is a shocking vision of the future so much as a shocking vision of where the neocons could lead us. I enjoyed it and could recommend it for popcorn munching of the highest order. As a think piece, it fails, largely because of the depiction of the villains. There is no moral ambiguity there. They are evil and they revel in it. They maybe quest for power, but there is no clear motivation for their evil deeds. In that way, I guess there is a resemblance to The Hills Have Eyes. There are bad people in these movies, but they are bad because they are born bad. I dunno that I buy that in movies anymore than I am willing to buy it in real life. If you really want me to think about it, the villains have to have clear motivations or something that gives me an understanding of what they are up to. And it simply isn't here.

Bottom line: Go see it because it's fun. Don't see it if you want something to spark conversation about their government or our government. It's just not up to that standard.