V for Vendetta (2006)

13 December 2020

With the rise of things like Anonymous and dystopian fears, the film V for Vendetta can be a little forgotten over the visuals and movements it stirred. Partly because it was a comparatively limited superhero film to other series (it was based on a graphic novel that isn't going to be expanded upon) so it doesn't have the same staying power in public consciousness; and because it's more a tale of a vigilante rather than a superhero. Starring Natalie Portman and a masked Hugo Weaving, this is the Wachowskis' followup to The Matrix series. Writer Alan Moore denounced the film version for a few reasons - among those not being overt enough on the fascism and anarchism themes from the source material, and for indirect US political satire (Hollywood had several films from that time commenting on the Bush years).

It's a well done film, and one of the better translations from comic source material, in my opinion. It was able to trim the graphic novel and clean it up a little bit. It also had some solid casting, with Hugo Weaving playing the mask-weilding titular character with a bombasticness fitting of his character; John Hurt promotes himself from the 1984 oppressed to head of the oppressors; Stephen Fry even has a minor role as a tv personality. Natalie Portman holds her own as well, given that she is playing opposite a masked actor.

It does feel a little rushed at times (like the prison scenes), and some of the cut items added more to the character personalities (rather than "Creedy scowls all the time") and I still prefer the book all things considered (the art style of the novel feels better than the gloss of Hollywood), but it's one of the better live action comic translations from the silver age of comic book movies (which I feel ended around the Disney acquisition of Marvel in 2009). 8/10

27 January 2017

John Hurt's been in a good chunk of films, including Alien, Indiana Jones, Doctor Who, 1984 and V for Vendetta, Harry Potter, The Elephant Man, Watership Down, and other things. Sad to hear about his death.

29 November 2008

No review written. 8/10