T for Travesty

Rating: 3/10 (19 March 2006)

When I first saw the preview, V for Vendetta looked like it was going to be great. 1984 is one of my favorite books and I loved The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded. It appeared that all the elements of a truly great film were there, and the preview left me counting the days until this movie opened.
What a difference a viewing makes.
I left the theater angered; not only because the message of the film was simply appalling, but also because V could easily have been everything I had hoped for. Since seeing the movie last night, I've looked into the situation regarding Alan Moore and his reasons for dissociating himself with this interpretation of his work, and his opinions have only redoubled my initial feelings.
What Moore created in his graphic novels was paradoxical meeting of polar opposites  anarchy vs. fascism  leaving the audience to judge who was right and who was wrong. What the Wachowski's have done in their bastardized version is play fast and loose with details while trying to force the round peg of their liberal politics into the square hole of Moore's original work. The result, not surprisingly, doesn't fit.
Subtlety is thrown to the wind as the brothers make their point painfully obvious. From the "Coalition of the Willing" poster juxtaposed against a swastika, to the "religious," "conservative" politician who rules the movie's landscape, to the superfluous subplot of a government vendetta (small "v") against homosexuals, the nuance and innuendo of movies like The Matrix are nowhere to be found. The makers of V are not nearly as concerned with a dystopian view of the future as they are with the petty politics of the here and now.
In the end, V for Vendetta comes off as a thinly veiled attack on the Bush Administration. Say what you will about Michael Moore, at least he respects his audience enough to say what he means. V pays no such respect, instead choosing to convey an anti-American, "yeah for the suicide bombers" message that's as insulting as it is disgusting.
Alan Moore's poetic vision of a hyperbolic clash between ultra-left and ultra-right is nowhere to be found in this disappointing film. V may be for vendetta, but T is certainly for travesty.