[Marky]

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

[barend]

It's also a shame that we have to wait for the movie to come out in order to make us think about a topic that was depicted in a grahic novel almost 25 years earlier. Or is it more concerning that it is just a relevant today and can make such a mirrored social commentary. Im torn...

if anything, it's more relevant!

[Dr Lecter]

I saw it. It is pretty faithful to the graphic novel, with some differences to make Portman's and Rea's characters more sympathetic. The film's issue of fascism is more cartoonish, and easier to sell in a film. It's a pretty big idea to do in a movie, and was ultimately too big for the comic series as well. Poor sales or whatever had caused it to be reduced from a planned ongoing series to a miniseries, and as such many character plots were truncated to the point of questionable relevance. The movie resolved this by cutting some characters out altogether.

I've only got the book today, I'm at page 69 (no jokes please) and the film is almost nothing like the book. Such as,

*Spoiler*
V doesn't blow up the Houses of Parliament a year after the Old Bailey, he blows them up first, and then later blows up the Old Bailey. And this before he even kills that Reverend. The fact that Evey is not arrested for breaking curfue, but for trying to solicit the fingermen. The murder on the train? Or the fact that Evey is suppose to be 15 or 16, not in her twenties... Its more that they cut out vast qualities and changed the orders of events, rather than changed things, but they made V seem much more sane in the film than he is the book.

This post has been edited by Dr Lecter: 21 April 2006 - 06:57 PM

[jariten]

I saw it yesterday.

I liked it, despite its frequent moments of stupidity. Like has been said, the general tone of the film was really watered down (thats a facist England?!), but I still thought the messages (controlling people through fear, creating a war- which is also what happened in Star Wars) got through and of course are important and relevant.

How did she go undetected for a whole year?

How did she not recognise V's voice when she was imprisoned?

etc. but those things really didn't get in the way too much.

[Dr Lecter]

Thats all explained better in the book.

[J m HofMarN]

Loved the movie and the theme of it, but where does an escaped experimental prisoner get a hideout, gadgets, and the endless resources V displays? I'm sure it was explained in the book, but they could have had a tiny bit of exposition about it.

[Gobbler]

I always figured he was running a soft-ice-empire in the background...

[Supes]

Loved the movie and the theme of it, but where does an escaped experimental prisoner get a hideout, gadgets, and the endless resources V displays? I'm sure it was explained in the book, but they could have had a tiny bit of exposition about it.

He's actually been at large for quite a few years before he begins his campaign. It is never discussed, but the assumption is that during this time and using his superior intellect and skills he has been able to collect the things he needs not only to complete his very detailed plan, but also pander to his personal fetishes. The book does give a better sense of time, but I thought the movie also indicated that this was the case. I may, however, have been biased from this preconceived idea.

[Lord Aquaman]

Rate Natalie Portman's performance in "V" - flat or not flat?

[Supes]

Rate Natalie Portman's performance in "V" - flat or not flat?

Adequate! I felt she excelled during the more intense scenes, particularly during her "incarceration". But I did find her a little flat in some of the other scenes. I think this would have been negated had they gone with the backgrond from the book, but overall I liked her perfomance and thought she did a vry good job.

It's easy to make this call after seeing the PT. Her acting is so bad in these that anything else she does looks great.

[Sailor Abbey]

I watched it on HBO last night and I really liked it. It was a bit hard to get into at first, but once it got going it was pretty good. NPs accent is atrocious. Hello, can these people not hear themselves?

At least she gave it a shot though, unlike some people.

I’m talking to you Kevin Costner.

[TruJade]

hmmm i saw it opening weekend

my only complaint is i wanted to see V
and more than just a hand

i wanted to see his horrible disfigured face
and still love him because he's V

oh and i love the Beginning/end
Remember, remember the fifth of November.....

[Slade]

Just imagine Agent Smith with some quality burn-victim makeup on and less modern suit.

[TruJade]

well ....
i'd hope they would do
a little something different

that Hugo Weaving as a burn victim
like a burn double
i dunno

[Lord Aquaman]

A question one of the guys at IMDB's forums asked dealt with Deitrich's little "skit" in the film making fun of the Chancellor.

The question: wasn't this just outright suicide? Deitrich couldn't have seriously believed he would and could get away with that, not in a world where he had to hide his own homosexuality for fear of being imprisoned or murdered, just because he was a celebrity. Was he simply delusional, or was he full out expecting to be killed and hoping to be martyred (spelling) for what he did?

Of course, V says Deitrich was shot after they found the Quran in his home, but I'm pretty sure that if they found his copy of the Quran, then they probably found the other stuff he had.

What do you all think of this?