Alan Moore's Curse Holds True.

Rating: 3/10 (7 April 2006)

Alan Moore is the author of the original graphic novel from which this movie is based. It is a work of literary art from cover to cover and one of my all-time favorite reads, right up there with Virginia Woolf and William Wordsworth. However, there is a Hollywood Curse looming over his head. You see, several of his stories have made it to the big screen, whether you realized it or not. Swamp Thing - 1982 (while he didn't create the character, he reinvented and repopularized him which is what prompted the movie in the first place) From Hell - 2001 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - 2003 Also during the 80s another of his works (Watchmen) was opted but the movie fell through before fruition and he's been fighting to get the rights back for years. Now a big studio owns the movie rights and is going ahead with it against his wishes. Why against his wishes? Because every single movie has been an abhorrent perversion of his original work. While it is probably the best movie adaptation of his work, V for Vendetta is still tragically a horrible representation of Moore's message. It was twisted into cheap Hollywood propaganda to try and poke fun at the current US administration. As much as I enjoy anything that take's George W Bush and Co. down a peg or two, I don't enjoy being manipulated, and that's how this movie made me feel. It also veered very far off the point of the graphic novel, by cutting out every significant subplot and twisting the overall idea of V (the graphic novel is about breaking down any and all barriers and boundaries to discover one's true self and connection with the world around you; the movie, on the other hand, pushes an agenda of liberalism within the constricts of currently acceptable western social archetypes) and not to mention the vastly different ending, which was the nail in the coffin for me that the Wachowski Brothers just simply DIDN'T GET IT. The pacing is hindered with the badly timed, badly integrated flashbacks, particularly one of the most important scenes of Evey's discovery of Valerie's note. Without any of the of other storytelling elements of Moore's original graphic novel, the flashbacks feel forced and divisive. Another major flaw is the exceptionally crappy Matrix effects during the "climatic" (or rather anti-climatic) end fight scene. It's one thing for bullets to ripple the air in a computer simulation, but another for knives to have ugly windows mouse trails in unnecessary slow motion. The scene had no purpose, no soul, no tension. It was boring. The only saving grace of the film was Hugo Weaving, who provided a perfect voice for the mask. Unfortunately all the best lines from the comic were cut. V was left feeling exceptionally rigid and lucid; calculating and painfully sane. And while calculating he certainly was in the comic, sane he was not. The madness, and therefore the joy of not knowing what he'd say or do next, was lost. His "plan" was obvious and uninspired, as was this movie. It didn't make me want to change the world or change myself. It just made me want to write Alan Moore an apology letter for having watched this movie. I could go on and on about how they ruined Evey's character by writing her as too strong, too smart, and too independent and overly romanticized her and V (especially considering how she thought V might be her father in the original work) but I've wasted enough of my time on this movie which I never plan on seeing again.