V for Vendetta

Well, I’ll give them one thing – the ending of the movie is probably better than that of the comic book. I don’t think I’m spoiling much by saying that at the end, the Houses of Parliament get blown up – whereas that is the very first thing that happens in the graphic novel. It was a stronger opening than the film had, granted, but the comic’s ending was a disappointment. However, while that one element of the comic was a let-down, far more of the film was.

Essentially, apart from the stirring ending, all the best elements came right out of the comic. The scientist quietly accepting that V has already killed her, the story of the lesbian that gives Evey hope, the most striking twist (though they made it WAY too obvious with too many shots focusing on gloves), as well as the general aesthetic. I can understand wanting to change some more excessive or more convoluted parts, but nothing was changed for the better.

The biggest sin was humanising V. Where he was a remote, solipsistic, superior father-figure, he became a slightly bumbling love interest. Where he was an anarchist keen to point out the difference between anarchism and voluntary order, he became a liberal terrorist appealing to rather than provoking the people. Where he was playful with his references and tasteful with his excesses, he became pretentious and incapable of knowing when he’d gone too far.

The Wachowskis removed the post-nuclear war setting, instead making the fascist government complicit in a plot of releasing a virus, blaming it on terrorists and then coming forward with a vaccine that was lifted straight out of 20th Century Boys, although without a giant robot (I wonder if that WAS a direct influence – the film tells us nothing is coincidence!). This is fair enough, but in an effort to draw more parallels with the Bush regime, the Orwellian dictatorship is neutered and more emphasis is put on spin – but rather than make the setting more believable, you can’t believe the chirpy Brits who see straight through the lies on TV would actually follow John Hurt’s Hitler wannabe. For people living in constant fear, people certainly don’t seem too worried about the ‘fingermen’ – as evidenced by Evey’s blithe breaking of curfew laws in the opening scene (rather than being driven to illegal prostitution, as in the original), and Stephen Fry’s totally transformed Gordon character’s arrant stupidity.

Some beautiful direction was somewhat undermined by shlocky fight scenes, a clunky script (so why did V meet up with the detectives?), and Portman’s dodgy accent and over-acting, her talent visible in perhaps one or two scenes only.

An unfortunate mess made from source material that, while also somewhat messy, at least had impact and eloquence.