# V for.... WTF? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281 "2005-12-26T20:51:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/1 "2005-12-26T20:51:53Z")
Okay. I’ve been following the trailers, and re-reading the graphic novel. A lot. I squeed a lot when I saw the first trailers, but then… Originally opening November 5. Important to the plot! Cool day to open it… Then moved to March. The dumping ground for movies you figure aren’t gonna make it. Okay, I can live with that. Now trailer #2. Some minor changes (like why Evie is out so late), but doable… But then… An army of V’s?! NOOOOOOO! I mean… Isn’t… That… Totaly anti the actual story? I keep praying it’s the nightmare or hallucination of one of the characters… But I suspect it isn’t… Please, please someone explain this to me in a way that won’t make me hang my head and weep! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/2 "2005-12-26T21:08:57Z")
😕 What are you talking about? I can’t find anything on IMDB about a forthcoming movie titled _V._ What would it be? An adaptation of the piece-of-shit SF miniseries from 1983? [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085106/](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085106/) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/3 "2005-12-26T21:14:25Z")
[V for Vendetta](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxxPXZlbmRldHRhfG14PTIwfGxtPTUwMHxodG1sPTE_;fc=1;ft=106;fm=1). A much-delayed adaptation of a DC graphnov. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/4 "2005-12-26T21:18:20Z")
Not the Thomas Pynchon novel (The one V reads at one point)? ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/5 "2005-12-26T21:27:27Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > 😕 What are you talking about? I can’t find anything on IMDB about a forthcoming movie titled _V._ The OP is referring to [V for Vendetta](http://imdb.com/title/tt0434409/), a film adaptation of a much lauded [graphic novel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_vendetta) by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. I haven’t read it–graphic novels aren’t really my cup of tea–but the word is that the Wachoski Brothers (of _The Matrix_ fame/infamy) have significantly altered plot elements and that the film has gone back to major editing a couple of times owing to poor test screenings. (Plus, as I indicate [post=6161638]here[/post], they’ve made Natalie Portman appear in her list attractive visage to ever grace the screen.) Since they’ve shifted release to the January though March crap movie dumping ground, we can guess that the distributing studio (Warner Brothers) either doesn’t have any faith in it, or doesn’t understand how to distribute it (given their recent past poor marketing movies with films like _Spartan_ and _Kiss Kiss Bang Bang_, it could be either/or). But odds are that the film will be critically panned and disappear like a bad magic act. Pity; I rather like dystopian stories, though they don’t generally do well at the box office (_Brazil_, _1984_, _Strange Days_). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![633squadron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/ee59a6/32.png) [@633squadron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/633squadron)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/6 "2005-12-26T22:58:56Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Pity; I rather like dystopian stories, though they don’t generally do well at the box office (_Brazil_, _1984_, _Strange Days_). I’ve read V for Vendetta several times. I liked it a lot, although I have to say that graphic novels _are_ my cup of tea. I expect that Hollywood will butcher it (if it hasn’t already) the same way they screwed up Judge Dredd and Tank Girl. Natalie Portman is a _terrible_ choice to play the heroine. Sigh. I think that Hollywood has a real problem putting English writing on the screen. US comics and pop novels do well, but US directors seem incapable of understanding English culture. My advice to SDMBers is to avoid the movie in droves, and spend your money instead on the original novel. The artwork is a bit retro by today’s standards, but the writing is simply blistering. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2005, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/7 "2005-12-26T23:37:26Z")
…ignore the nay-sayers. Early preview screenings at the Aint it Cool Butt numb a thon apparently left viewers wowed. From an early review: > [@](#): > > For Alan Moore fans, let me say this: you’re going to be happy. The film is extraordinarily close, in spirit and in text, to his graphic novel. The Wachowski Brothers do not spare any punches when necessary, and many of the sequences that fans hold to heart are there. > > […] > > I loved that about V FOR VENDETTA. There are no easy answers to the political and the moral position that you find yourself in, and it’s extremely important that you find them out. > **[Nordling does a focused review on V FOR VENDETTA from BNAT 7!](http://legacy.aintitcool.com/node/22011)** > > Hey folks, Harry here with the first full length review written on V FOR VENDETTA - this one by Nordling. The Nord is a mighty man of passion - and this review is no different. However, he discusses many very extreme spoilers - so if YOU... …If your a fan of the graphics novel, I don’t see the harm in dropping a few dollars to go see the movie. If you end up hating it, feel free to sue me. 😉 However, a call to “avoid the movie in droves” seems unwarrented for anything but the most appalling of movies, and from the sounds of things this movie will be anything but. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/8 "2005-12-27T05:23:19Z")
Yes, but that’s Aint it Cool News, aka the movie site to ignore. I’m waiting for a reputable news source to say something positive, not a website known for overweight nerds talking about how Spiderman makes them cum in their pants. ---
**Author:** ![First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@First\_Amongst\_Daves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/First_Amongst_Daves)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/9 "2005-12-27T05:26:43Z")
Now there’s a pleasant mental image. I really like Moore’s work generally, but I always thought V for Vendetta was a bit weak - obviously a contemporary reaction to Thatcherism. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/10 "2005-12-27T05:34:36Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Not the Thomas Pynchon novel (The one V reads at one point)? I’m reminded of a joke from _America: The Book_ in which Thomas Pynchon sued the makers of the TV series, a case which was heard five times (The final case was _V v. V V_). ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/11 "2005-12-27T07:22:32Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > Yes, but that’s Aint it Cool News, aka the movie site to ignore. I’m waiting for a reputable news source to say something positive, not a website known for overweight nerds talking about how Spiderman makes them cum in their pants. …many people saw it at the preview screening, and the buzz was pretty damm good: so just because the review turned up on the AICN site, it is not a reason to dismiss it outright. Do you suggest that people avoid the movie in droves, as **633squadron** has suggested? Or should people give the movie a chance? ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/12 "2005-12-27T07:29:18Z")
> [@Banquet Bear](#): > > …many people saw it at the preview screening, and the buzz was pretty damm good: so just because the review turned up on the AICN site, it is not a reason to dismiss it outright. Do you suggest that people avoid the movie in droves, as **633squadron** has suggested? Or should people give the movie a chance? I’m saying neither. Merely that I shall ignore any press that comes from AICN and wait to see what a reputable source has to say before I decide to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/13 "2005-12-27T08:43:31Z")
I’ve never read the comic, but I’ve seen the trailer and I have to say - that’s one seriously silly-looking mask. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/14 "2005-12-27T09:22:30Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’ve never read the comic, but I’ve seen the trailer and I have to say - that’s one seriously silly-looking mask. He does look like a pretty silly guy. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/15 "2005-12-27T12:45:19Z")
Oh, how wrong you are. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/16 "2005-12-27T12:58:24Z")
> [@Jonathan Chance](#): > > Oh, how wrong you are. I’m sure he’s a terrific superhero or whatever, but to an ignoramus like myself he looks like a dork. It’s Restoration-Era-Face-Man! I have a feeling the general moviegoing public will largely agree with me, too. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/17 "2005-12-27T13:25:41Z")
As may be. But I get the impression it’s a standard Guy Fawkes mask as Moore intended. As for box office I can’t imagine this plays for long. This has cult written all over it and tons of money in the DVD release. Hell, a movie in which the hero IS a terrorist and is portrayed as sympathetically as V is? Oofah. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/18 "2005-12-27T20:26:06Z")
> [@Silentgoldfish](#): > > Yes, but that’s Aint it Cool News, aka the movie site to ignore. I’m waiting for a reputable news source to say something positive, not a website known for overweight nerds talking about how Spiderman makes them cum in their pants. I think you’ve got that backwards. AICN, like all the many nerdtopias on the Internerd, is a place where they’re gibbering to dislike anything based on a comic book or other extant source material no matter its actual charms. If the dweebs there dig it, that means they can find nothing to criticize in either the movie-cum-movie or in its success as an adaptation. And given how much folks of that stripe love to savage stuff in adaptations that doesn’t exactly mirror the way they think it should be (“Organic web shooters? THOSE BASTARDS!”), the fact that the hypercriterati are on board says, IMHO, the exact opposite of what you think it says. –Cliffy P.S. Hypercriterati – I’ll have to remember that one. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/19 "2005-12-27T20:29:27Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m sure he’s a terrific superhero or whatever My standard urge to smack someone upside the head whenever they assume that every comic book is about superheroes is sublimated in this instance by my uncontrollable giggling at the idea of V being considered a superhero. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281/20 "2005-12-27T20:41:03Z")
> [@Cliffy](#): > > My standard urge to smack someone upside the head whenever they assume that every comic book is about superheroes is sublimated in this instance by my uncontrollable giggling at the idea of V being considered a superhero. > > –Cliffy Ha. You beat me to it. It’s V-Man! Righting wrongs the good ol’ UK way! _Heroic pose, winning smile_ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/v-for-wtf/337281.md?page=2)