V FOR VENDETTA

Director: James McTeigue (2nd unit on Matrix and recent Star Wars)
Writers: Wachowski Bros. (of Matrix noteriety)
Starring: Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, John Hurt

V for Vendetta? More like V for video game.

A success can be a terrible weight to bear, or so it seems for the Wachowski brothers. The Matrix was a wonderful acheivement, but that achievement will necessarily be compared with whatever else these two do, and so far, nothing has measured up. With their silly, pompous and annoyingly overdone sequels to the Matrix, the Wachowski brothers managed to fritter away much of the cinematic capital they earned from that supremely satisfying original. As far as I’m concerned, V for Vendetta has just spent most of the rest.

This film suffers from the exact same problems as those frustrating Matrix sequels. Oh, none of these films are necessarily “bad” movies. They all have entertainment value. They all have moderately exciting moments. They’re all watchable. I certainly took the time to see them all. What they’re not is anywhere near as good as The Matrix. It seems that since the original film, the Wachowskis’ writing has taken a nosedive into adolescence. Vendetta (and the Matrix sequels) are filled to the brim with annoying, desperate, almost pitiful attempts to be taken seriously as philosophy and political discourse.

Plot-wise Vendetta is the story of a flamboyant vigilante who dons a Guy Fawkes mask and leads the people of Britain to overthrow their dictatorial government sometime in the near future. He slips into the most secure levels of the corrupt government’s machinery and teaches the people that their own fear is the only thing allowing the government control them. Natalie Portman is his main convert. He teaches her (using such methods as physical and mental torture) that her fear can be overcome and she can become a good-guy vigilante terrorist too.

Despite many (very many) attempts by the writers to make this man poetic and momentous, he tends to come across as rather foolish and childish. Despite many (very many) attempts to describe corrupt government and society, this film just doesn’t have a clue how they work. On the positive side, when the characters aren’t talking, the film is fairly entertaining. There are explosions and theatrics and twists (although at least one of these was jaw-droppingly stupid in my opinion – see the torture aside above). This film reminds me quite a lot of Michael Bay’s The Island released last year. It’s a film that (almost desperately) wants to be smart, but just doesn’t seem to realize how trite it really is. This film was a video game. It’s on that level. There are overdone theatrics and explosions and fight scenes, and not much that really relates to humanity. As a teenage action movie, it works pretty well. As a dialogue on the Bush admistration and terrorism, which it obviously has aspirations of becoming, it just doesn’t.

Standouts: Some solid, heavily theatrical entertainment value.
Blowouts: Attempts to make the movie meaningful … cause it just wasn’t.

Grade: B-