V for Vendetta
Mar. 19th, 2006 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jmc_bksI have a bunch to say about this movie, but the first thing is -- go see it NOW! In fact, after leaving the theater, I called my sister to tell her the same thing. I think I'm going to post a separate entry later re: terrorism, but I have stuff to say about the movie itself first.
Hugo Weaving -- first, a disclaimer: he could read the phone book and I would happily sit for hours and listen. Didn't care so much for Elrond, King of the Elves, but his Agent Smith in The Matrix made that movie for me. One of my favorite movie lines ever is, "Hello, Mr. Anderson." His performance as V was amazing to me, because it relied entirely on his voice and to a lesser extent on his body language, which was powerful but very controlled. The complete lack of facial expression because of the mask would have stilted most performances, but somehow didn't here. His monologue to Evey hooked me, reeled me in to the movie completely.
Stephen Rea -- he was very much a key to the movie. An arm (the Nose, really) of the fascist government, he was the only governmental character who seemed to care about the crimes being committed while being uninterested in promoting government propaganda. It made me wonder about the untold backstory of this character. Performance-wise, Chief Inspector Finch was reminiscent of Rea's Inspector Burakov from Citizen X.
Natalie Portman -- fairly good, but not as good as her debut in The Professional. Still, she would have to have been stellar in order to outshine John Hurt, Rea, and the creepy Creedy. The British accent that disappeared and reappeared was irritating, but not a calamity.
John Hurt, Stephen Fry, Tim Pigott-Smith -- excellent, excellent performances.
I found the Voice of London explaining that the USA's situation was Judgment/Punishment as a a result of godlessness to be quite ironic, given how the Christian Coalition and Conservative Right keep trying to foist religion into government roles.
The music, the cinematography were very well done. And the scene at the end with all of the Vs flowing toward Parliament gave me chills.
Went to the library immediately after the movie in search of a copy of the graphic novel -- none to be had. Instead had to settle for a copy of the "novelization" -- the novel based on the screen play. Going to the bookstore this afternoon for a copy of the graphic novel, I think.
Oddity -- among the previews were Scary Movie 4, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Were they chosen because they were comedic? because V for Vendetta was based on a graphic novel? The match up seemed strange to me, particularly SM4. X-Men I can explain as comic book-based film; I see comic books as slightly different from graphic novels, but maybe that's a judgment call. And Pirates, well, it is an adventure movie. But I'm not really sure I would have included any of the previews if I was the distributor. ::shrugs:: But what do I know?
Hugo Weaving -- first, a disclaimer: he could read the phone book and I would happily sit for hours and listen. Didn't care so much for Elrond, King of the Elves, but his Agent Smith in The Matrix made that movie for me. One of my favorite movie lines ever is, "Hello, Mr. Anderson." His performance as V was amazing to me, because it relied entirely on his voice and to a lesser extent on his body language, which was powerful but very controlled. The complete lack of facial expression because of the mask would have stilted most performances, but somehow didn't here. His monologue to Evey hooked me, reeled me in to the movie completely.
Stephen Rea -- he was very much a key to the movie. An arm (the Nose, really) of the fascist government, he was the only governmental character who seemed to care about the crimes being committed while being uninterested in promoting government propaganda. It made me wonder about the untold backstory of this character. Performance-wise, Chief Inspector Finch was reminiscent of Rea's Inspector Burakov from Citizen X.
Natalie Portman -- fairly good, but not as good as her debut in The Professional. Still, she would have to have been stellar in order to outshine John Hurt, Rea, and the creepy Creedy. The British accent that disappeared and reappeared was irritating, but not a calamity.
John Hurt, Stephen Fry, Tim Pigott-Smith -- excellent, excellent performances.
I found the Voice of London explaining that the USA's situation was Judgment/Punishment as a a result of godlessness to be quite ironic, given how the Christian Coalition and Conservative Right keep trying to foist religion into government roles.
The music, the cinematography were very well done. And the scene at the end with all of the Vs flowing toward Parliament gave me chills.
Went to the library immediately after the movie in search of a copy of the graphic novel -- none to be had. Instead had to settle for a copy of the "novelization" -- the novel based on the screen play. Going to the bookstore this afternoon for a copy of the graphic novel, I think.
Oddity -- among the previews were Scary Movie 4, X-Men: The Last Stand, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Were they chosen because they were comedic? because V for Vendetta was based on a graphic novel? The match up seemed strange to me, particularly SM4. X-Men I can explain as comic book-based film; I see comic books as slightly different from graphic novels, but maybe that's a judgment call. And Pirates, well, it is an adventure movie. But I'm not really sure I would have included any of the previews if I was the distributor. ::shrugs:: But what do I know?
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no subject
Date: 2006-03-19 04:54 pm (UTC)I kid you not.
Doug
no subject
Date: 2006-03-19 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-19 06:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-20 02:24 pm (UTC)