Went to see V for Vendetta on last Friday. I throughly enjoyed it. Its meant to have a political bent to it, but I think it was late enough for my brain to have fallen asleep and not picked up on it. The story is pretty simple (synopsis from MyVue.com):
Set against the backdrop of a totalitarian Britain of the near future, ‘V For Vendetta’ tells the story of a masked freedom fighter called ‘V’ – a literate, radical and violent revolutionary who aims to galvanise the people into overthrowing their government. Inspired by the actions of Guy Fawkes, he carries out a series of terrorist attacks on the state, with the ultimate intention of succeeding where Fawkes failed and blowing up Parliament.
*Spoilers Ahead* V is played by Hugo Weaving, which pretty much everyone knows as either Agent Smith from the Matrix Trilogy or Elrond from Lord of the Onion Rings. V is particularly interesting and intriguing character. He’s not your usual brooding hero (or anti-hero depending on how you look at it). I would have liked to have seen more of him but unfortunately there can’t really be another film.
At the start of the film, V saves the life of Evey (played by Natalie Portman, Léon, Episodes 1 to 3 of Star Yawn Wars) who watches V destroy the Old Bailey. In time she comes round to V’s vision. The story unfolds fairly slowly (its just over 2 hours long) and does drag a little in the middle, but in the main, its good stuff. V’s motives and past are explained, although you never see him unmasked or find out his true identity. Eventually he succeeds and blows up Parliament (I’m not giving anything away here, its in all the trailers!).
I tend to pick up on the most stupid of things in films and what made be chuckle to myself this time was the use of a Rover 75 / MG ZS as Finch’s police car of choice. Given the film is set in the future and Rover / MG went bankrupt last year I hardly see them driving a shiny new one then…
Anyway, it ties in to the Dark Knight Returns graphic novel I read recently, since V for Vendetta was originally a series of comics (later combined into a graphic novel) created by the eccentrically English Alan Moore. There is an excellent interview from the BBC where he talks about his writing and his thoughts on the films of his work (he doesn’t hold back!).
The film isn’t strictly based on the book but apparently it isn’t too far off. Hopefully I’ll be getting the graphic novel for my birthday soon so I’m looking forward to reading it. There is a ton of stuff on the subject so instead of waffling, I’ll just list ’em. I highly recommend V for Vendetta. Makes a nice chance from the usual brain dead nonsense at the cinema.
- Shadow Galaxy – V for Vendetta fansite on the comics (very good)
- Shadow Galaxy – V for Vendetta Movie Blog
- Trailer
- Official film site (lots of pictures and behind the scenes stuff)
- WikiPedia entry for the comics
- WikiPedia entry for the film
