V For Vendetta

B


V For Vendetta is film adaption from the popular graphic novel of the same title created by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in the 1980's. Evey (Natalie Portman) is a young woman living in fascist England who is saved from a band of crooked cops by V. (Hugo Weaving) V is a brilliant, perhaps even crazy, man who believes the govenrment in which they currently live in is highly corrupt, and that he is the one to break the chains of opression for the people in order to create a better world. Because of his bold actions to revolt against the Supreme Chancellor, V is labelled a terrorist by the government, and becomes number one on their hit list. Evey is forced by V to live with him in his hideaway, but she soon sees the cause for his actions, and joins him. Together, they work towards giving the people a voice, and V sets off a complex plan of strategic action to accomplish their lofty goals.
I thought the movie succeeded in capturing one of my favorite graphic novels of all time fairly well with a few exceptions. I thought the pacing at the beginning was a little too fast to take everything in, but it became more satisfactory about half-way in. The action was great. I had no issues with the acting. I do wish that two scenes from the graphic novel would have made it into the film, but maybe I'll get into that sometime later. I don't want to spoil anything for anyone.
I was left with sort of a bad taste in my mouth after the movie was over eventhough I thought it was well executed. While others disagree with me, I saw a strong commentary against religion in this film. All of the main villains in the film are described as "religious conservatives," yet they never touch on correct religion- the kind that helps people rather than enprisoning those they don't agree with.
The film tends to defend the homosexuals that were oppressed by he government more than anyone else, while the graphic novel spoke against a more broad range of biggotry like racism, and attacking those of other religions. There are scenes of: two women kissing, two men sleeping together in a bed, and one of the heroes in the story was portrayed as a gay man contrary to the original novel. It seemed like this film was designed to be a bit of a platform for those that think homosexuality is ok. I will admit that the original graphic novel did defend homosexuality, but it didn't single it out like the film did.
I did enjoy the fact that someone in hollywood made a film to say something meaningful even if I didn't neccessarily agree with all that it was saying. This is not a common practice in our current film industry, and not only would I like to see more of it, but I am also planning on making my own voice heard through this medium. Like I say, This film was a pretty good adaption of the original graphic novel, but I'm not willing to end the story where they left it. I don't want to say that the people need to control the government, and then say nothing of how the individual person needs to change themselves aswell. This film reminded me that I want to push the medium even further, and I want to get down to the real problems of this world, and not end half-way to call it a day.