If V is for Vendetta, then D must be for DULL!

Rating: 3/10 (16 March 2006)

I went to a screening of "V for Vendetta" last night and if you thought the "Matrix Trilogy" was bad then "V" will have you pulling your hair out like your name was Natalie Portman. Who by the way, wasn't the worst thing in this movie, which is kind of scary considering what an awful actress she has turned out to be. The movie comes across as little more than an "anarchy sticker" stuck on the bottom of some suburban punks' skateboard to look cool. Just like the suburban punk, the Wachowskis don't really believe in what they are displaying, they're just doing it to look cool. While "V" is completely unfaithful to comic book it was based upon, that is hardly its biggest crime. Come to think of it, compared to majority of this flicks offenses its little more than petty theft. "V for Vendetta" is remembered less for being a great comic book and more for being the work of a great comic book writer; Alan Moore. While nowhere near as good a book as his prior comics that were turned into films ("From Hell" and "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen"), "V" does follow in suit as a yet another terrible and mishandled film based on Moore's writing. While nobody would consider the Wachowski brothers to be more than glorified video game creators, I was actually curious as to how they would handle adapting a script for a book overflowing with dialogue and light on flashy graphics. Where as the "Matrix" films are completely style over substance, the graphic novel "V for Vendetta" has countless scenes devoid of action or explosions but full of rich dialogue and character evolution. Unfortunately the brothers Wachowski, along with their partner in crime director James McTeigue screw it up so badly that if this film were ever shown in a football stadium, it could qualify as the longest fumble in NFL history. For a film that's supposed to be coated in rebellion and anarchy McTeigue and the Wachowski's never really give you a reason to believe in the terrorist hero V or his attacks on Parliament. Instead of giving you emotional and character driven reasons to come to conclusions on the cast, McTeigue and company visually shove it down your throat. You know John Hurt is bad because he's on a giant screen with huge black pupils (to show he's evil, cant you see how evil that is?) and that Portman is good because she is attractive and V is good because he causes explosions and painfully goes out of his way to attempt to illicit laughter from the audience. Not a single character in this has an ounce of reality to them let alone passion for anything going on around them. And why didn't they rerecord weaving's voice; half of V's dialogue is completely muffled due to the mask. Bloated, self important and without any meaning is all you have to remember about the 5th of November.