V for Vendetta (2006): D

Alan Moore made quite a stink earlier this year by publicly disassociating himself from the cinematic adaptation of his 1982 graphic novel V for Vendetta, which he assumed – after unpleasant experiences with From Hell and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – would be bastardized in its translation to the screen. It turns out, however, that the acclaimed author had nothing to fear: Christopher McTeigue’s film is wholly faithful to its anti-Thatcherite source material’s juvenility. Written by those masters of pretentious verbosity, The Wachowski Brothers, McTeigue’s would-be blockbuster is an unbearably talkative affair with virtually nothing sane to say – unless, of course, you think that a thinly veiled allegory which posits America/Britain as a fascist, genocidal Christian dictatorship, the Koran as a symbol of beauty and enlightenment, and terrorists who like to blow up national monuments as intellectual, freedom-loving heroes is in any way, shape or form rational. Worse than its inane political pontifications – or the fact that McTeigue and the Wachowskis seem to believe the claptrap they’re peddling – is that V for Vendetta isn’t even an energetic dystopian nightmare, its two-plus hours little more than a turgid morass of conspiracy theory exposition, concentration camp imagery, and anti-clergy (they’re all pedophiles!) and anti-media (it’s a tool of tyranny!) blather that somehow manages to celebrate the replacement of conformity with more conformity. Oh yes, and it’s also another May-December celluloid romance (after The Professional, Beautiful Girls and Closer) between Natalie Portman (as blossoming radical Evey) and an older, withdrawn gentleman (here Hugo Weaving’s ludicrous V, a Batman-Joker hybrid who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and advocates terror as the solution to terror). One could spend hours dissecting the myriad ways in which this piece of pseudo-insurgent pop art fails – how its visual compositions are lackluster, its pacing is slack, its verbiage is embarrassingly silly, its obligatory bullet-time action sequences are both lame and out-of-place, and its revolutionary worldview is tailor-made for tenth-graders who wear Che Guevara t-shirts – but that would imply that the film is worthy of such close scrutiny. Call it V for Vapid.

Comments

[Robert Humanick]

As a student of political science as well as an advocate of true anarchy (read: not outright violence and mayhem), I couldn’t' help but anticipate this film. While I don't look down on it as much as you, I share in the same overall opinion. The potentially good ideas are lost in a sea of over exaggerated goods and evils. As a political piece, it needs subtlety, and as a genre picture, it needs some titillating visuals and a sense of energy. Damn Hollywood and their instructional liberalism!

[Queer Beacon]

Wow, I saw the movie for what it was, I great blow up flick. I know it is impossible not to see the political agenda behind the movie, but it is something else to let the agenda cloud one's judgment. See my review here:
http://queerbeacon.typepad.com/queer_beacon/2006/03/v_for_vendetta_.html

[Devin Conroy]

"Pretentious verbosity," eh? Those two words nicely sum up your criticism of the film. I do not have the time to rightfully object to most everything you have stated, but V certainly does not advocate terror. Sometimes drastic measures must be taken to overthrow governments. This film was nowhere near perfect, but to completely flatten all positives of this movie is sadly ignorant. Also, V for Vapid? This movie was anything but vapid. How could you describe this film as lacking energy and liveliness?

Sincerely,
Devin

[Nick]

Robert,

Here here! Hollywood’s desire to address hot-button issues is admirable. Unfortunately, the execution has been largely lacking, this film being the most egregious failure. Lamely thought-out political ideas + an absolute dearth of excitement = cinematic disaster.

Queer Beacon,

I don’t think for a second that I let an agenda cloud my judgment. If I remember correctly, it’s V himself who talks about the paramount importance of “ideas,” and thus I think challenging the film’s ideas is not only valid but – given that V for Vendetta is as much a political allegory as it is a “blow-up flick” – absolutely unavoidable and necessary. That said, as my review makes clear, I also thought that, on a purely “blow-up flick” level, the film was a bust.

Devin,

Using my words against me is very clever. Bravo. You really got me. That said, V does use terrorism to strike back at the English/American terror state. And while you may be right that “sometimes drastic measures must be taken to overthrow governments,” the film asks us to celebrate a heroic mad bomber – and eventual martyr! – whose targets for destruction are symbols of Western democracy. This is, to put it mildly, an absurd request.

Oh yeah, and the film is most certainly vapid, by which I mean that it lacks energy and liveliness (thanks Merriam-Webster!).

[Robert Humanick]

I haven't read the original graphic novel, which I hear is very good, so for now I'm going to pitt the blame on the screenwriters for making V for Vendetta so damn explanatory and lacking in any intellectual subtelty (Government control is bad, get it? Look, even the four-eyed girl gets it!). Blowing up Parliament could very well be a rousing image of revolution against corruption - if the movie weren't so dedicated to its cartoonish dystopia and strained attempts at drawing parallels to the current U.S. There's often a fine line between rational discourse and mindless zealousness, and this movie crosses the line flagrantly. For Wachowski-penned titles, I'd rather watch The Matrix Reloaded again.

[Nick]

Well, I was never a fan of the graphic novel (I find it rather juvenile and unaffecting, and thus the exact opposite of Moore's later, magnificent Watchmen). But as you note, the main problem with the film is that it attempts to draw parallels between its rebel-against-dystopian-totalitarianism story and today's U.S., even though such parallels are by and large silly.

I think I too would rather watch The Matrix Reloaded - and man, I never thought I'd say that.

[sakara]

I just bought this at biglots for three dollars; I'm at the 49 minute mark of the boredom, so I switched to checking out some reviews.

The dvd market has botomed out, cause today's young movie goers dont buy dvds; old geezers like me, who dont go to the movies, buy dvds.

While watching this boring movie, I did begin to wonder about the mask in this movie being taken over by real life internet hackers---whatever happened to the liberal idea of how movies DON'T influence people, especially how violent movies don't influence people?

As usual, I skipped the dvd warning of how dvd piracy is a terrible crime. Maybe some sequel will have the hero pirating hollywood blockbusters.