V For Vendetta

[Twitchy]

On tonight - have a feeling BUFS may have shown this last year, and we've certainly shown it at some point in the last five.

Great film, very re-watchable.

[Lambada]

BUFS showed it last year - I think it was the Thursday of Bonfire night.

I'm not coming along tonight though - I've seen it too much recently.

A couple of times last year, and it was on TV the other night (although I only watched about half of it).

[Haruhiist]

Okay, definitely not a fan...

I have no problems with a film changing what is in the book it is adapting. The way I see it a scriptwriter should change whatever they want if it makes the script better. That said, the changes that were made to V for Vendetta make it a lot less interesting, and a lot less intelligent. The graphic novel is far less black and white, in which V isn't someone we really sympathise with all the time, he's a ruthless killer, whilst the government that is in power doesn't force its way into power but instead is elected into power and kept in power by apathetic voters. The film Hollywoodises the story to the extreme, there's not nearly as much moral ambiguity, and so the film seems to entirely support V's actions rather than questioning whether they're right or wrong and thinking about them. It's justification for supporting his actions? Making the government an over the top caricature (did no one else cringe at those scenes where Adam Sutler shouts over the huge tv screen at his cronies?) which is both incredibly annoying and silly. Meanwhile V is now some romantic figure spewing out cheesy dialogue at every oppurtunity...

The film is far too slick and clean, I can't really buy into this as a dystopian future. This isn't helped by the film being overlit imo. Portman was a bit weak at points, and the script... I mean, there's something kind of amusing about those verbose speeches and the wordplay, but for the most part it felt cheesy and contrived, more interested in how stylishly it could say something than what it actually had to say. And that's not to mention a couple plotpoints that really didn't ring true:

SPOILERS
Tens of thousands of masks being delivered to the houses? How on Earth would something like that slip through this comically over the top government's fingers? I'm also kind of shocked that Deitrich honestly though he'd get away with recording that television programme, I mean does he have any idea who is ruling the country here?! He should have known he was putting himself and Evey who he said would be safe in extreme danger by doing that.
END SPOILERS

Ugh, I need to go get some sleep v.v

[Twitchy]

Totally agree with those things you've put it the 'spoilers' section. I find them really jarring, too.

It's entertaining enough, but I've no book to compare it to, y'see.

[Pureferret]

I would very much like to see the film and the book/graphic novel. You do often get a lot of disparity between adaptations which can be frustrating but then I tend to consider lots of those adaptations to be separate and it bothers me less.

[feeshy]

Well, I've somehow never managed to see the film before, so I think I managed to ignore most of the silliness and enjoy it as a 'yay for pointy knives and explosions and Stephen Fry' sort of thing. I reckon if I watched it again I'd notice things a lot more and be annoyed by it. I also think I should really try and get the graphic novel.