Movies: Anarchy in the U.K.

In point of fact, though, “Vendetta” is not good. The film may spark interesting debates—about the nature of terrorism and governments, about the inalienable right of artists to shock and provoke—but what we’re dealing with is a lackluster comic-book movie that thinks terrorist is a synonym for revolutionary.

Another interesting bite:

…the movie plays like a clumsy assault on post-9/11 paranoia. It references “America’s war,” uses imagery direct from Abu Ghraib and contains dialogue likely to offend anyone who’s not, say, a suicide bomber. Buildings are symbols, V tells a haunted young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman), after saving her from some vile, rampaging cops: “Blowing up a building can change the world.” The filmmakers have insisted that V is not intended to be a hero. Which is bollocks. The movie grants him absolute moral superiority from beginning to end.

Ya know, if V is not intended to be a hero, someone should tell the publicity department. The e-mail I recently received from their promotional campaign begins,

“On March 17, the creators of The Matrix bring you a provocative new hero and a story of the struggle for freedom and the power of humanity.”

Richard Roeper actually takes the other critics to task for not evaluating the movie the way he does. Richard, by the way, is wrong. Not in his opinion, he’s welcome to that… but he is factually wrong. He states that it’s an England where it’s as if World War II turned out differently and the Nazis won. Er…not quite. Unless the film has been altered since initial reviews, there are ample indications that it is a future England warning that England has turned fascist because of its participation in the War on Terror. We know that the War on Terror is part of the history included in this alternate future because a man who collects banned items has “a banner comprised of the American flag, the British flag, and a Nazi Swastika overlaid on top of them with the slogan ‘Coalition of the Willing.’” Now, a basic point here: that is something that wasn’t in the original text.

You can pretend that this movie isn’t a comment on the world today and isn’t trying to say anything provocative. You can even pretend that this is merely an adaptation of a 25-year-old book fretting about Margaret Thatcher kicking off fascism in the UK. One wonders why they’d make a multi-million dollar adaptation of it now if that were true. However, to do so is to think that the guys behind the Matrix would want to make a film utterly lacking in subtext.

I can just picture Richard Roeper setting down his copy of “Animal Farm,” remarking that it’s a cute book about talking animals but that anyone trying to read a message into it is a hot-headed ideologue.

Meanwhile, Beau Smith comments about it, as always, with brutal honesty:

“I also have to tell the truth. I tried to read V For Vendetta when it came out as a comic. Even though it is well written, it just isn’t anything that interested me. Just a matter of personal taste, that’s all. I’ve seen the trailer to the movie … It strikes me as what women would think a good action film was.”