V for Vendetta

Someone actually brought kids to the theater for this. Obviously the parents had no idea what it was about - or aren’t into “age-appropriateness.”

There are differences between the original comic and the movie - things have been updated, substituting virus warfare for experimentation with drugs. Some of the subplots have been rearranged or left out. The Wachowski’s have evolved, the look of the movie is similar but flows differently than the Matrix. All the way around very stylish and skillful with the cuts and scene changes.

Natalie Portman should have had better writing in Star Wars. She’s pretty good in V. Hugo Weaving has a wonderful voice, a fact made even more apparent when we are deprived of any viewing of his face to distract us, and he had some of the most complex monologue I have ever heard. I’ll look forward to the bloopers if they include them on the dvd.

Lots of dark, and violence, and obvious parallels to just about any government that’s gone off balance and sacrificed personal freedom for what they label safety, but is actually another form of violence against the citizens, sometimes culminating in literal violence. I thought it was a little over the top to have the one guy of “unnatural sexual preference” also be the one hiding the Koran in his basement, but in another way it makes sense - accumulating forbidden materials in an age of social repression to assert, however covertly, one’s independence. Without getting killed. And there was lots of killing.

As movies about Something go, this one was well acted, well produced, paced and plotted with a deft hand, and left me wondering who I could re-borrow the comic from.