First of all this movie confirms my belief that if you make a film flashy and fast paced with quick editing then you can get away with murder. It seems this is the preferred method these days with comic adaptations, keep it fast so people don't notice the plot holes and unbelievability.
I guess this movie makes attempts to have a message, but I was constantly reminded of it's comic book, sorry "graphic novel", origins because of the existence of the ever present male pubescent fantasy super hero who can beat all the bad guys and is impervious to pain, physics etc without any real explanation as to why. V for Vendetta seems to fail on both sides, there is not nearly enough action for it to be a true comic book movie, and the political commentary is so ridiculous that it can't be taken seriously either.
And for those who credit it as updating the old 1984 story of big brother to the present day war on terror really don't know their political history and i think we listening to too much Air America radio when this movie was being made. 1984 was written in 1949, and was a commentary on the Soviet State, NOT a capitalist democratic state. The ones who are truly pulling the strings TODAY are the corporations, not the government. Politics is essentially a game between these two forces as how best to carve up the world's resources. The people don't really enter into it except as consumers and tax generators. Some parties are more pro corporatist than the others, but let us never forget who is really in charge. George Bush didn't wake up one day in late 2008 and decide the banks needed 750 billion dollars, it is the banks that commanded that from him. Also, everyone who makes all these Nazi Germany comparisons don't really understand what Hitler and the Nazi party represented. The Nazis were both pro government and extremely conservative, these things don't really exist today, except perhaps in China. Most conservative people are extremely anti government, especially in the United States because of all the evil the government does with taxes, like build roads and schools and stuff. Bastards! Present day neo conservatism preaches that the only role of the government is to wage wars and have a police force, each of which performs essentially the same job, protect wealth and access to resources.
Anyway, back to the movie, even though it is shot beautifully it is really fairly empty in its heart, I never sympathized with any of the characters and every time it seemed to saying something interesting, something unbelievable would happen and all of a sudden we are back in comic book land. Everything happened so quickly that I couldn't grasp what was going on half the time, or if I did I was rolling my eyes. I also liked Natalie Portman, she at least redeemed herself from her horrible performances in the Star Wars movies (which I blame mostly on George Lucas) but I think Kira Knightly would have been better cast, at least she is British.
So in the end, not a bad attempt, but he rehashes the same old dead ideas about big government and anarchy and ends very similarly to Fight Club, which is not a good thing. It's message is pretty childish, when in doubt, blow everything up and it'll make everything right. Isn't that why were are in this mess in the first place?
I guess this movie makes attempts to have a message, but I was constantly reminded of it's comic book, sorry "graphic novel", origins because of the existence of the ever present male pubescent fantasy super hero who can beat all the bad guys and is impervious to pain, physics etc without any real explanation as to why. V for Vendetta seems to fail on both sides, there is not nearly enough action for it to be a true comic book movie, and the political commentary is so ridiculous that it can't be taken seriously either.
And for those who credit it as updating the old 1984 story of big brother to the present day war on terror really don't know their political history and i think we listening to too much Air America radio when this movie was being made. 1984 was written in 1949, and was a commentary on the Soviet State, NOT a capitalist democratic state. The ones who are truly pulling the strings TODAY are the corporations, not the government. Politics is essentially a game between these two forces as how best to carve up the world's resources. The people don't really enter into it except as consumers and tax generators. Some parties are more pro corporatist than the others, but let us never forget who is really in charge. George Bush didn't wake up one day in late 2008 and decide the banks needed 750 billion dollars, it is the banks that commanded that from him. Also, everyone who makes all these Nazi Germany comparisons don't really understand what Hitler and the Nazi party represented. The Nazis were both pro government and extremely conservative, these things don't really exist today, except perhaps in China. Most conservative people are extremely anti government, especially in the United States because of all the evil the government does with taxes, like build roads and schools and stuff. Bastards! Present day neo conservatism preaches that the only role of the government is to wage wars and have a police force, each of which performs essentially the same job, protect wealth and access to resources.
Anyway, back to the movie, even though it is shot beautifully it is really fairly empty in its heart, I never sympathized with any of the characters and every time it seemed to saying something interesting, something unbelievable would happen and all of a sudden we are back in comic book land. Everything happened so quickly that I couldn't grasp what was going on half the time, or if I did I was rolling my eyes. I also liked Natalie Portman, she at least redeemed herself from her horrible performances in the Star Wars movies (which I blame mostly on George Lucas) but I think Kira Knightly would have been better cast, at least she is British.
So in the end, not a bad attempt, but he rehashes the same old dead ideas about big government and anarchy and ends very similarly to Fight Club, which is not a good thing. It's message is pretty childish, when in doubt, blow everything up and it'll make everything right. Isn't that why were are in this mess in the first place?