Film: V for Vendetta

[L2R]

^this film is just as 1984 as Brazil: extremely.

go see A Scanner Darkly.

I would if i bloody well could!

 

[Raving Loony]

Well that was a right disappointment. You know your not enjoying the movie when toilet breaks are a convenient way to pass the time during dull parts of the film. The political "undertones" were cheesy (almost as cheesy as Pearl Harbour in parts), V was a ridiculously complex character creation and the message in the movie was all over the place. Apparently blowing up a priceless piece of achitecture like the Lodon Parliament and St Stephens tower at midnight when all the politictians are away from their job would suddenly make a country better? Can anyone explain to me what was the point of Natalie Portman's character in the film, bums on seats perhaps?

2 stars, but only because the pizza and the beer went down real well!

 

[vegan]

V For Vendetta was just as preachy and rediculous as Crash

god forbid people have some ideals and want to share them!

It's pretty easy to vaguely condemn a basic system system or belief and end up sounding prophetic

so? you'd rather have everyone shut their mouth because "it's so easy to open it"?

I doubt that the original author of the books had any idea how relevant it would eventually become in a specific way

hmmm... my wild guess would be that when you write a 10 tomes comics, you spend more time thinking about its message and its relevance in the real world than someone who just sees the film during 2h

Apparently blowing up a priceless piece of achitecture like the Lodon Parliament and St Stephens tower at midnight when all the politictians are away from their job would suddenly make a country better?

a symbol helps people unite
a symbolic action helps them start acting

 

[ego_loss]

^^
There is a difference between sharing ideals and getting preachy. Besides, sharing your ideals through contrived dialogue and plot devices is almost insulting... even more so when the main point seems to be "don't be a fucking sheep". So, yes, given the choice between hearing someone present their message in a poignant, thoughtful way or being preached to like a schoolchild who doesn't understand what is going on in the world unless it's presented in the most basic, dumbed-down, nursery rhyme way... yes... I would rather you shut the fuck up.

Don't get me wrong.

1. I "enjoyed" the movie. I just don't think it's anything really groundbreaking or thought provoking.

2. If this movie moves people to turn off their television, think for themselves, pick up a book, write a letter to their congressman... whatever... good for them. As far as I am concerned, see #1 above.

 

[Raving Loony]

Apparently blowing up a priceless piece of achitecture like the Lodon Parliament and St Stephens tower at midnight when all the politictians are away from their job would suddenly make a country better?

a symbol helps people unite
a symbolic action helps them start acting

I can't go along with that, being a lover of history and architecture. I'd mourn far more over the loss such a bulding to a Taliban style of attack than that resulted in 80,000 casualties. A man or woman may live for 100 years, but the buildings around them will live on. If V was around to today in my country I'd enlist myself to assassinate him personally.

 

[Perpetual Indulgence]

I liked it.

 

[sixpartseven]

Good movie. Couldn't help but see some parallels with the book 1984, but that's just me.

i seen a lot of them too.

 

[L2R]

1. I "enjoyed" the movie. I just don't think it's anything really groundbreaking or thought provoking.

One thing you're fogetting is the same thing most reasonably intelligent people forgot about the matrix films when they bagged them out as well. The films show nothing new or really groundbreaking, this is true, but what does make them groundbreaking is the target audience.
Both V and the Matrix trilogy targents a mass general audience, and in doing so introduces many themes to the public consiousness that isn't generally around before.
When judging the intellectual merits of such films, one needs to think like the average movie goer, in other words, minus 20 or so IQ points from one's own.

I'm just glad such generally challenging films are being made.

 

[tambourine-man]

^
Agreed. I never quite got my head around the snobbery that was directed at The Matrix trilogy. It may have been philosophy for the masses, it may have been watered down, and it may have had artificial flavourings added to suit the cultural tastebuds of the saccharine-swilling masses... but at least it tried to introduce some interesting concepts.

 

[Infinite Jest]

Can anyone explain to me what was the point of Natalie Portman's character in the film, bums on seats perhaps?

In the book, her part is incredibly important - she's like a naive counterpoint to V. Her learning and development is central to the point of the book. (She probably gets more time in the book than V does).

@Blowmonkey: 1984 was definitely one of the big influences on Alan Moore

 

[ego_loss]

One thing you're fogetting is the same thing most reasonably intelligent people forgot about the matrix films when they bagged them out as well. The films show nothing new or really groundbreaking, this is true, but what does make them groundbreaking is the target audience.
Both V and the Matrix trilogy targents a mass general audience, and in doing so introduces many themes to the public consiousness that isn't generally around before.
When judging the intellectual merits of such films, one needs to think like the average movie goer, in other words, minus 20 or so IQ points from one's own.

I'm just glad such generally challenging films are being made.

I wasn't forgetting it. See #2 of my post above.

I liked parts 2 & 3 of the Matrix more than part 1 because of their' "enlightened thinking 101" point of view. The difference between the two movies was that The Matrix was still much more cerebral in it's resolution whereas V was pretty straight forward and obvious. It's like people comparing The Last Temptaion of Christ to The Passion of the Christ. They were both very efficient at making the movie-going public empathize with the last days of Jesus Christ... only one appealed to a much deeper level with real character development and stories while the other depended entirely on imagry and gore to make it's point. I realize how valuble it is to present new ideas to people who may never have bothered to think of things in such a way... I just wish they were a bit more... cerebral?

 

[L2R]

points well taken.

nice comparison to the jesus flicks.

 

[Beatlebot]

I was looking forward to this film and I wanted to enjoy it, I really did, but there were far too many plot holes and inconsistencies. Also, Natalie Portman was not the right choice to play Evey. I haven't read the graphic novel or anything, I just don't think Portman pulled it off at all.

 

[Karaboudjan]

I really enjoyed it. By the looks of the trailer it seemed to me to be another bollocks DC film like X-Men or something but I was pleasantly surprised by its political message. The only let down was the stupid fight scenes that were no doubt put in to appease the usual X-Men crowd

 

[L2R]

XMen aren't DC
silly

 

[vegan]

I'd mourn far more over the loss such a bulding to a Taliban style of attack than that resulted in 80,000 casualties. A man or woman may live for 100 years, but the buildings around them will live on

[my opinion]
buildings don't "live on"
they don't live in the first place

buildings are objects
compared to life, they only have an anecdotal value

life can create buildings, not the other way around
it has before and will again

i appreciate architecture too. i went to art history university
but the pyramides are not worth one life

there are countless buildings that don't exist anymore and that you don't care about because you never even know they had existed

no, buidlings don't live on
you may believe so compared to the scale of human life or of written history, but that's nothing compared to the real scale of time
[/my opinion]

 

[cravNbeets]

I can't go along with that, being a lover of history and architecture. I'd mourn far more over the loss such a bulding to a Taliban style of attack than that resulted in 80,000 casualties. A man or woman may live for 100 years, but the buildings around them will live on.

then you have some pretty wack priorities ace.

i really enjoyed this movie but i felt that it could've been done better. im only beginning to warm to the campy melodrama typically used in comic book adaptations and i feel that V could've used a little less. i have no knowledge of the original work however so i couldnt say what could have been done differently.

i'll agree that natalie portman's character was completely irrelevant. how can someone so attractive repulse me so?

i thought the action sequence were dope shit- particularly the one @ the end when V completely loses it on like 2 dozen guys.

i definitely laughed at a lot of things that werent deliberately funny but overall i was pleasently suprised

 

[knight_marshall]

Originally Posted by Raving Loony
"I can't go along with that, being a lover of history and architecture. I'd mourn far more over the loss such a bulding to a Taliban style of attack than that resulted in 80,000 casualties. A man or woman may live for 100 years, but the buildings around them will live on. "

dude... do you feel sorry for the rocks that got destroyed to make the stones that create buildings? How about the sand that got taken from it's beach to make the concrete? Beaches rock! Don't be mean to the beaches! Beaches 4 eva!

 

[Karaboudjan]

XMen aren't DC
silly

 

[Survival0200]

I watched it ... and I liked it!