V for Vacuous

Rating: 1/10 (27 March 2006)

*** CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS ***
Alan Moore's graphic novel V for Vendetta is an elegant, thought-provoking and complex exploration of the meaning of freedom and the politics of protest. The Wachowski Brothers and James McTeigue have somehow reduced this to a film that pretty much says 'Whoa, dude! Terrorists ROCK!!!111!'
It's hard to imagine how anyone who is a fan of the book could have produced this film. The novel is clever where the film is dumb, engaging where the film is boring, and subtle where the film simply blows stuff up. Where Moore's V is erudite and sophisticated, the best McTeigue's V can manage is a big speech of words mostly beginning with the letter 'V'.
Principally to blame for this must be the screenplay, which is full of unwieldy clunking additions which are supposed to make you think REAL HARD YOU GUYS about how this is LIKE RELLEVUNT to NOW. The screenplay takes a piece which is about Thatcherite Britain and tries to use it to bang home a message about George Bush's USA. So, instead of Moore's extreme conservative regime, we are presented with a 'British' government of the religious right, which seeks to ban homosexuality and Islam in the name of Christianity. Anyone who is actually British will find this confusing and nonsensical, as there is no popular religious right in Britain. And Americanisms like 'lever' (pronounced 'levver' rather than 'leever') and 'elevator' don't help.
Still, no one could really have expected the Wachowskis to produce a subtle or clever screenplay. But you might reasonably expect that this would be a super-stylish, high-action thriller. It isn't. The production design is sloppy - we're expected to believe that, thirty or forty years into the future, people are wearing exactly the same clothes and using exactly the same technology as they are now, with the sole exception of a little red bleepy machine which doesn't seem to have a function but might perhaps be a dictaphone. And, as for your high-octane thrills, well... don't get your hopes up. The action moves at around a quarter of the pace of the Matrix, and fight scenes are few and far between. In the climactic fight at the end, wherein V slays a whole troop of men, the film's signature visual effect finally kicks in: and it's... *drumroll*... knives leaving vapour trails. Wooooo. No need to bring a spare pair of pants to the cinema. Bullet time, it ain't.
There are many problems with this film: poor editing, appalling performances, the pointless addition of a love story. But the main crime is undoubtedly the sheer stupidity that the Wachowskis have brought to the table. Moore's novel deliberately does not end with firm conclusions, but asks you to consider relative evils: the government is obviously oppressive and fascist, but V is no less totalitarian in his own convictions. When he blows up symbols of democracy and justice like the OId Bailey, murders those who don't agree with him, or tortures Evie to 're-educate her', he becomes more and more like the government he despises.
In the film, this duality is forgotten, and V is presented as a straightforward hero. The conclusion, therefore, is that terrorism works, terrorism is good, and the ends always justify the means. The film of V for Vendetta misses the principal point of the novel, and ends up being offensive as well as boring and rubbish. Read the book, please, but don't waste your time watching this. And let's pray they never make Watchmen.