V For Vendetta

Just watched the film adaptation of the classic graphic novel V For Vendetta. And, as always seems to be the way with any adaptation of an Alan Moore story, I was really disappointed. In fact I would go as far as to say that the film version is a "bag of shite."

Oh, and there are spoilers below.

The original graphic novel is a bleak but compelling piece of work. Set in the aftermath of a limited nuclear war (partly due to the Labour Party winning the 1983 General Election), Britain is living under a totalitarian dictator, who in turn is in the thrall of a computer. Most people live in a quiet, poverty stricken despair - Evie is driven to prostitution (hence her meeting with V). V is a difficult, awkward character - traumatised by what has happened to him, he is a terrorist. He is more of an anti-hero than a hero. He is enigmatic and disturbing. He brings down the government - aided by a well placed assassin. The ending is ambigious - the totalitarian regime has fallen but V is dead, and there is no guarantee of a better tomorrow. It is a film noir on paper, a strikingly visual and surprisingly literate comic book.

Whereas the film seems to be a comic painted on the screen. The Matrix was darker than this failed attempt at a dystopian nightmare. Hell, Caddyshack was darker than the V For Vendetta film. In the film, the USA seems to be lost in some sort civil war. Britian - after a biological terrorist attack - has fallen under the sway of a dictator who used to be (inevitably) a Conservative under-secretary. Evie meets V on the way to meet a man who turns out to be gay. She was not driven onto the streets by poverty and in fact seems to have quite a cushy - albeit dull - job. The country is not suffering from the Norsefire regime too much - in fact Norsefire seems to be more of an inconvenience rather than anything else. And V - as played by Agent Smith from the Matrix films - is just fucking irritating. Dedicated, elusive and enigmatic revolutionary the film V is not. Someone you would like to punch repeatedly in the face the film V certainly is. The government suffers a coup d'etat, sponsored by V, but undermined by V killing those involved in the coup. And then we get a fireworks display and a hopeful ending.

There seems to be a complete inability to produce a decent big screen version of an Alan Moore story. I hope the adaptation of Watchmen proves me wrong, but somehow I doubt it will. The movie version of V for Vendetta is a massive disappointment that will not stand the test of time - we could have had a cinema classic, instead we have a film just dying to be forgotten.