So I just got back from a sneak preview of V for Vendetta. This is probably my favorite comic story of all time. I love Watchmen, but I enjoy V more. So I went into the movie expecting it to suck. And…
It didn’t. Changes, of course, but some were good, some were bad. Overall enjoyable, and some of the updates worked well. Considering the story was written in the early 80’s, there is a very dated feel to a lot of it. The updates to it were good, but I still prefer the original story.
Feel free to ask questions. I’ll box spoilers if anyone wants any.
I knew absolutely nothing about the comic before seeing the film.
I agree. I had low expectations and only went because it was a sort of professional obligation. (And it was free.) I liked the first Matrix film, but thought the last two were just about the worst pieces of dreck ever committed to celluloid (except, of course, for the last three Star Wars films). So I didn’t have a particularly high opinion of the Wachowski Bros.
But I was pleasantly surprised. The story was interesting, and very appropriate to the current political climate. The acting was pretty good, although it seemed a shame that as great an actor as Hugo Weaving had to hide behind that mask the whole time. And Natalie Portman is a much better actor than you’d expect if all you had seen was her wooden performances in the Star Wars films.
I bought the book of Sin City after seeing the film, even though I didn’t care for the film that much. And I didn’t care for the book, either. But I’m tempted to get the book of this film, if only to get some of the Shakespearean quotes that went by too fast in the film.
FYI, V for Vendetta will be showing in some IMAX theaters.
No. Unless you mean, Rossiter, the “guard” that tortured Evey. Then yes, but the name is only mentioned once.
Yes, barely.
There are two huge changes to the story that the more I think about them, having the reflecting of an evening, I don’t like. I guess they work for the movie, but they didn’t fit the story, to my mind.
V sends out a few hundred thousand masks through the post to random people. I guess to allow people to do things anonymously. Everyone wears them to the last big thing. And it becomes a popular revolution almost from the first part. One of the things that bothered me.
I saw it last night and, like diku, went in expecting a butcher job and was very pleasantly surprised.
As to the changes from the original:
The ending is completely different. Evey never appears as V after his death. In my mind, this was the weakest change. The popular uprising with thousands of people in V masks is supposed to cover the same thematic ground (“ideas are bulletproof”), but I don’t think it’s as effective as the original. I would also like to have seen V cause chaos by turning off all of the surveilence cameras and micorphones for three days like in the book, but once again, the mass mailing of the V costume is used to the same effect. But to tell you the truth, I think all of the intra-party politics in the final chapters of the original is pretty dull and pointless, and its excision from the movie is an improvement over the original.
But really, people shouldn’t get too worked up over the changes. Taken as a movie, and not as a comic, it works pretty damn well.
As someone who hasn’t ever read the comics, do you think I’m likely to enjoy the movie? How much will I miss out on because I don’t know the original source material? No specifics, please. I won’t read the spoilers.
And is there anything that really demands to be seen in the theater, or will DVD on a big screen be enough?
FWIW, I liked The Matrix, and I tend to like comic books and the movies made from them, so I’ll probably see it.
I haven’t seen it, but I’d guess that you would enjoy it just as much as people who’ve read it, and probably moreso since you’re blisfully unaware of any changes.
In the first full-length trailer there’s a single shot of what could be two girls kissing–it’s really hard to say, here’s a screenshot I took–which would mean Valerie is at least referenced.
If you haven’t read it, I think you’ll enjoy it more than someone that knows it by heart. In my group, I knew it, Max Carnage read it once, and the other two hadn’t read it. They enjoyed it probably more than I did.
And yes, the Valerie story is in it. I was soooo happy about that. The most important part of the book, and an easy piece to cut, was left in. Not just referenced, but the whole thing. Showing her parents and everything. I would’ve hated the movie if they left that out.
As I mentioned above, I came to the film without any background in the story, and loved it as a good movie and good story.
Although I understand people’s desire to see their favorite bits of the source material in the film (I still don’t think Pride and Prejudice has been done quite right, even though there are several thousand versions), you have to let the filmmaker make the movie, and not expect every bit of the book to be on the screen.
So don’t let anyone persuade you not to see it because it’s missing something they consider essential. Any film worth watching should stand on its own merits, without reference to the source, and IMHO, the film of V for Vendetta does that.
And it’s definitely worth seeing on the big screen.
I have some questions, especially for British dopers. As a 'Merkin, I’m only vaguely familiar with Guw Fawkes day. Are masks a part of the celebration, and is V’s mask a standard Guy Fawkes mask? I mean, would your average Briton with no knowledge of the comic or the film look at him and say, “That’s Guy Fawkes”?
Yes, it’s practically verbatim. And it works really well. I really think they did a great editing job on the original text. There’s no way they could have included everything, and I think they left in the best and most important parts. I fully expected the Valerie subplot to be totally excised.
And V still spoofs Evey into thinking she’s in a concentration camp. I was shocked they left that part in. I figured he would rescue her from a real camp at the moment of execution, since that would make him an unambigous good guy and make for another opportunity to get a fight scene in. Daring filmmaking, in my opinion.
My S.O. liked it, and she didn’t know anything about it except it was based on a graphic novel that had been laying around the house, and she loved it.
Just saw the movie with my girlfriend, and liked it a lot. Interesting seeing John Hurt as Sutler, and remembering him as Winston Smith.
I’ve not read the graphic novel, so I’ve got a couple of technical questions (possibly really stupid questions), things that may have been explained but that I missed (had a little trouble hearing some of the dialogue):
[spoiler]Okay, at the Larks Hill Detention Center, they were developing both the virus and its cure, and using detainees as expendable guinea pigs, right? And one of the involuntary subjects, the man in Room Five (roman numeral V), would later be known as V. Questions:
What exactly happened to V at the Detention Center? He survived the virus, but did it make him superhuman in some ways? He certainly seems to be faster and more agile than a normal human.
Does V in fact have no eyes? That would explain why the Guy Fawkes mask doesn’t hinder him in action – but how does he see?[/spoiler]
