Best Alan Moore Adaption

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2009)

For me it's a toss up between Watchmen and V for Vendetta on which is Alan Moore's best work. Most people say Watchmen, but there is something special about V for Vendetta that marks it a remarkable graphic novel. Alan Moore's work has never been adapted well for the screen. There was the epic failure The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which ruined Stephen Norrington and made Sean Connery retire from acting, and From Hell which butchered the graphic novel's material. V for Vendetta however has bucked that trend, but Alan Moore has completely distanced himself from Hollywood.
In the future Britain is being led by a totalitarian government, led by Adam Sutler (John Hurt). There is one freedom fighter, V (Hugo Weaving), a man who had suffered from experiments by the government and bases himself on Guy Fawkes. He has a two prong attack, one against all the people who tortured him, killing them for vengeance. The other is against the government, where he aims to gravitate support against the government, cause unrest, get people to question the government, and lead to an uprising against Adam Sutler on the 5th November. Early on in the film V saves Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a rebellious young woman who dislikes the government and works for the national television company. She falls for V's ideas, and sets out to help him in his quest. This despite her dislike for killing. The government as you can imagine doesn't like the idea of being overthrown. The special police are put on high alert and two officers are assigned to lead the cast, Eric Finch (Stephen Rea) and Peter Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith). Finch is simply a good cop who is just doing his duty, wanting to save people, and upset about the death of his friend, whilst Creedy is an ideologue who believes in the party and more importantly, his one self interest.
The graphic novel is of course always going to be better. It is so deep, full of ideas and numberous sub-plot. These can be covered in a comic format which when can handle them over a number of years, that a two-hour film can't. V for Vendetta is also a product of the Cold War and Thatcherism (the latter wouldn't have meant much to American audiences). In the graphic novel Britain had elected a left wing government which brought Britain out of NATO which is why Britain was never nuked during World War III. This had to be changed for modern audiences, and so it the idea of fascism vs. anarchism, to directorship and control vs. freedom of will. It was done well in the film though. For American audience V was turned from a anti-hero, anarchist who was willing to kill and betray anyone who stood in his way to more straight-forward hero who as well as uses action, uses more subtle methods to achieve his goals. The one major change I didn't like though was the change in Evey's character. In the graphic novel she starts as a scared 16-year-old orphan who lives in a labour camp and ends up trying prostitute herself. V saves her, introduces her to the world of rebellion and lets her grow as a character. She is a very conflicted, psychologically damaged girl, for example she has an with a man in his 50s. I thought that characterisation was more interesting.
V for Vendetta was the Wachowski brother's follow-up to the successful Matrix trilogy. They are big fans of the graphic novel, and wrote the script to be more then an action film or a simple comic adaption. It could easily have ended up being like Daredevil or Elektra where a not so well comic character ends up being in a weak film. They wanted to make a film with substances and places the film in a post 9/11, George W. Bush world. There are films about terrorism, how far someone should go, but I think the more important issue a government's use of fear to force through there policies (that's what George W. Bush and neo-cons did in America). Other ideas include freedom and what someone should do to ensure it, and the idea of liking in a surveillance society. The government in this film is basically a cross between the Nazis and Big Brother in George Orwell's brilliant 1984. I do however criticise the Wachowskis using some Americanisms in a film set in Britain. This is the first feature film by James McTeigue, an Australian who worked as the First Assistant Director on the Matrix trilogy. He shows he has a great eye of action, having some good, bloody fight scenes, as well as keeping the dramatic element, such as Evey's torture sequence and the flashback to the Larkhill Camp (they were also some of my favourite elements in the graphic novel). I'm sure the Wachowskis has some hand in directing the film, but hopefully McTeigue did most of the work. This make V for Vendetta a rare exception, were a first time director can make a good big budget film.
Hugo Weaving was very good playing the distant V, a character where you don't know much about his past and you never get to see his face. John Hurt and Tim Pigott-Smith make good villains, especially Hurt as the leader of the government. I however criticise the casting of Natalie Portman. Her English accent was weak and an English actress would have been better for the role. I think Keira Knightley would have been a better choice for Evey.
V for Vendetta tries to keep to the spirit of the graphic novel, not to the letter.