Discussion: ‘V for Vendetta’

Well, as we all know, V for Vendetta opened this weekend.

Did you see it? Did you like it? Did you hate it?

(I suppose we should throw a Spoiler warning on this as well…)

I haven’t seen it yet, so I have no opinion other than I love Hugo Weaving’s voice.

Comments

  1. Apparently, no one here saw it but Josh, but some other people did:

    LOS ANGELES – Audiences were in a rebellious mood, lifting the action tale “V for Vendetta” to the top spot at the weekend box office with a $26.1 million debut.

  2. Oh, I saw this last night. I thought tha tthe movie was really good, but I can’t compare it to the original because I only read the first three issues of it.

  3. I saw it opening night and absolutely loved it. I was a little scared, seeing as the brothers who did the matrix trilogy (the last two were cinematic abortions)were helming it. But, they put my fears to bed. I haven’t read the series yet, but i’ll be picking it up wednesday.

  4. I was a little scared, seeing as the brothers who did the matrix trilogy (the last two were cinematic abortions)were helming it.

    They actually only produced it. But yes, those two movies were awful beyond words.

    Josh talks about his thought on the film in the brand new podcast.

  5. I just saw it tonight. I loved it! I was worried about those damn matrix boys too. I also thought it was great that Alan Moore’s name was nowhere to be seen on this flick. Big ups to Alan Moore.

  6. The Wachowskis wrote the screenplay as well as produced it. And the director is their protege.

    “Cinematic Abortions” made me laugh. Good show.

  7. One thing I wanted to mention. During this weeks Podcast there seemed to be some spculation that Natalie Portman could have had some influence over Evie no longer being a prostitute. While that is possible, do recall that she played a prostitute in “Closer” and didn’t seem to have any issue with it.

  8. She was actually a stripper in Closer, subtle difference I guess.

    I dunno, I doubt Natalie had a say in the change to Evey’s character – although it did occur to me and I went to the trade to confirm after we did the podcast: Evey wasn’t so much a prostitute as she was desperate and turned to prostitution. right? Didn’t she get accosted by the police on her first attempt at turning a trick? Or did I rush through that section again and mis-read it?

  9. She wasn’t like a career prostitute, and it may have been a desperate survival measure, but regardless, she was selling her ass. But in the movie, she’s sort of going on a dubious date. But they even take the wind out of that eventually. The movie removed the teeth from her situation. I wouldn’t blame Portman, because I have no reason to, especially after Closer. Excellent point by the way.

  10. I thought the movie was God-awful. Cheesy and overly stylized. I hope the film does well, but I was shifting in my seat and glancing at my watch quite a bit. I hope they never remake Watchmen!

  11. I don’t agree that it was awful, but to each his own. I want to clarify that had I never read the book, I probably wouldn’t have had many problems with the movie, but the source is so good that the omissions are glaring to me.

    But, I agree that I never ever want to see an adaptation of Watchmen. The story is either so big that they wouldn’t even try, or the opposite, if they did, it would completely lose the meat of the story.

    I would have accepted the 12 parter directed by Terry Gilliam. I’d be OK with that….

  12. I read that they pitched a Band of Brothers-esque Watchmen mini-series to HBO but they declined.

    That would be the only way I’d accept a Watchmen adaptation.

  13. That was sorta what I was referring to. I think I’m combining it in my mind with Gilliam, who said he wouldn’t do it unless he had 12 hours. I don’t think that was the HBO pitch though. Might have been…

  14. One other thing about Watchmen (and why it would have to be 12 hours) is that it is really a comic book readers comic book. Not that people that don’t read comics can’t enjoy it, I am sure that many have. However, I think the fact that none of the characters are known comic book characters (like Batman, Spider-Man, etc) the general public would be so confused unless you really made sure the backstory was perfectly clear. In essence the common man would wonder why they made a ‘comic book movie’ and it didnt have any of those guys they remembered reading in comics when they were kids, or remembered watching in saturday morning cartoons. More people in the world have heard of The Flash, Green Lantern, and even Darkhawn (well makbe not Darkhawk) than Rorschach.

    And before people point out the same for ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘Sin City’, they really aren’t super hero stories and the same (obviously) goes for ‘Road to Perdition’ and ‘A History of Violence’. Watchmen would run the risk of being received as a mature version of ‘Sky High’ with Doctor Manhattan being a more mature version of ‘The Commander’…

  15. I totally put Sky High on my Netflix queue.

  16. Me too.

  17. Unless you have a 7 year old like I do, I would not recommend it…

  18. One thing I can’t comment on is anything to do with parenting.

    I can only wish you good luck.

  19. It’s great. You can pay them a nickel per comic to bag and board them for you…

  20. I’m pretty sure there’s SOME sort of laws against 5 cent child labor…

    (BUT WHAT IF THEY’RE STICKY, 7 YEAR OLD HANDS COMPROMISE THE INTEGRITY OF YOUR BOOK, OH NO!!!)

    As for V for Vendetta, it was a good movie, better then I expected. They took some creative liberties, but then again who DOESN’T (Organic Webbing, Anyone??)

  21. And for the Boneheaded Pretension file, I submit Moriarty of Ain’t It Cool News:

    “You can just go off and imagine your pointless masturbatory 12 hour version of [Watchmen], and be done with it. For some of us, the potential of film is part of the pleasure, and your pessimism seems like poison for the sake of poison.”

    http://www.aint-it-cool-news.com/display.cgi?id=22841