V for Vendetta

I read V for Vendetta, the graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd, a long time ago.  It knocked me flat.  I picked up my own copy some time in the late nineties, when the bookstore where I worked at the time got hold of some remaindered paperback copies of the then-out-of-print book.

When I saw the movie it pretty well knocked me flat too.

I noticed the obvious changes from the source material.  As every single article and review about this movie is compelled to mention, Alan Moore had his name taken off the credits--and he's getting more publicity for that act than he would have gotten for being the credited original writer, though I don't suppose that was his point--presumably because the movie is so different from what he wrote back in the 80s.  For the most part, I think the changes work, and I didn't miss the excised characters and subplots too much.

Hugo Weaving does a fabulous job as V.  It's got to be a tough assignment for an actor, spending an entire movie hidden behind a ceramic mask, but he carries it off well, defining the character with voice and body language.  Natalie Portman does an equally fabulous job as Evey, and is convincing as both the passive media flunky at the start of the movie and the tough bald chick who has to decide whether to flip the switch on the explosives at the end.

I do wonder how one man in an oppressive totalitarian society could manufacture and arrange to have delivered some 200,000 Guy Fawkes masks.

Originally posted at MySpace on 3/20/06