CRS
Chandler, Arizona, United States

There's an old saying. If you don't want someone to join a crowd, you ask them, "If everyone were jumping off of a cliff, would you?" Well, I have. So my answer would be "Yes". True story.
Profile continued . . .

ARCHIVES!
Review of V for Vendetta

Friday, August 11, 2006

this entry brought to you by the raconteurs, "steady as she goes"





The idea of big, dumb summer action movies is a bit antiquated. They're still being churned out, sure, but unlike a few decades ago when movies could get by on action alone, summer blockbusters nowadays with no brain and no heart are instantly labeled as bad and quickly forgotten about. With that said, the summer blockbuster with breathtaking martial arts, explosions, and a beautiful leading lady that manages to make you think as well as force you to question your own moral values is so rare I'm not aware of one ever having existed before.

The idea of an anti-hero is basically entrenched in American heritage. We love our anti-heroes. The anti-hero here, though, only qualifies as a hero because his motivation is based on a just cause-- however, V, the Guy-Fawkes-Mask-wearing main character, is a terrorist. Much like the villain in any other movie, or, for that matter, a real-life terrorist, V's goal is the downfall of the government and general chaos, and goes down a list of people he must kill in order to go about his plan, killing any armed individual who gets in his way. Yet V doesn't fall into the trap of other modern heroes or bad guys; rather than being brooding and dark, V is charming, incredibly verbose, in general good spirits, and a complete gentleman. The movie, then, asks you to not only enjoy an out-and-out terrorist, but to sympathize with his cause. And his cause is as noble if not more so than other movie heroes. Coming into power by feeding off the fear of its citizens after a contagion wiped out tens of thousands of people, Britain's government has outlawed homosexuality, scapegoated and outlawed Islam, enforced strict curfew laws, and uses the media as a puppet tool for spreading misinformation. V's position is that the people shouldn't live in fear of the government-- the government should be afraid of the people.

Based on a comic book mini-series by Alan Moore (who, incidentally, took his name off of the movie and all further movies based on his work because of frustrations he had with previous adaptations, and it's a shame his name is nowhere here as this movie should have done him proud), the screenplay is affectionately written and produced by The Wachowski Brothers, who deserve heaploads of gratitude for believing in such controversial material-- one of the old standbys in Hollywood is that a movie needs a happy ending, and the larger the audience you want, the more "safe" a movie needs to be. Yet here we have a 100 million dollar movie as far away from "safe" as any movie can get that isn't being purposefully offensive, and it's the kind of feat only renegades like the Wachowskis could pull off. Furthermore, first-time directors that get their hands on big-budget special effects films tend to deliver dizzyingly wicked visuals with no substance to back them up. The real surprise here, then, is that first time director James McTeigue who's previous credits were not much more than assistant directing The Matrix sequels pulls off a major stunt in having a vibrant, beautiful film that, like the Matrix movies, are stylish and svelte, but unlike the Matrix movies, with across-the-board good acting (kudos go to Hugo Weaving, who does his entire performance behind a mask with a giant, comical smirk, yet out-acts the entire cast of all three Matrixes here), but also shows a rarity amongst unknown action film directors: restraint. There is a beautiful, moving segment during Evey's imprisonment where she reads the hand-written letters from a fellow suffering prisoner, and rather than being melodramatic (even the flashbacks in Ray, an Oscar-caliber movie, were somewhat melodramatic), it is beautiful and stunning; yet it also noticeably pulls you away from the main story, and a lesser director would have taken this out of his movie. Here it is planted as an all-too-close to reality flower near the climax of the film that gives V complexity and character.

V for Vendetta is, in the end, what movies are supposed to be all about. It was originally a brilliant and praised comic book, it was a ballsy and sharp adaptation by the Wachowskis, and translated into a brilliant, superbly done movie that, as the best movies do, challenges you at what you think and really, who you are as a person. Every step of the process in making this movie could've easily gone wrong, yet here we have a magnificent action movie that easily reaches into the upper pantheon in its class, joining the likes of X-2, Aliens, and Back to the Future, yet it is more thought-provoking than more "serious" movies dare to be. An instant much-watch classic you'll be excited for your kids to see 20 years down the road.
-----



with love from CRS @ 7:05 PM 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment