Remember, remember...

[Elendae]

So, has anyone else seen V for Vendetta yet? Thoughts?

[JackOfHearts]

I've read the novelization, and am planning to see the movie after the fencing club tonight. It was a pretty swift book, and I'm hoping the movie is swift. We'll see.

[JasminaJ]

I loved the graphic novel. Haven't seen the movie yet.
That seems to be a pattern for me.....

[JackOfHearts]

Generally, the book is always better then the movie. This seems to hold true with graphic novels as well, though I can't really say on this one until I see the movie.

[Faggot the Hutt]

Graphic novel? Is this how comic book readers attach validity to their literary form of choice, by changing the terminology? A comic book by any other name is a still a comic book, and while it may initially seem that I am chastising you for reading a comic book, rather I am needling you for lacking the cajones to state, that in fact, you are reading a comic book.

*spoilers*

Anyway, I did see Vendetta and found that while the general message was clear the movie did have a number of plot holes. My biggest problem with the movie is that it simply couldn't work. The movie assumes that a populace has the wherewithal to understand the extent of certain uses/abuses by an evil entity, then suggests that a nation would stand by, even support the destruction of part of their history? There was no pre-established action to suggest that the population bore that level of hatred. In fact, the only thing that was clear about the population was that it enjoyed copious amounts of television. Our own populace is seemingly more displeased with the standing president than the Vendetta populace was with their leader, but I doubt that you could find many, let alone an entire city, that would revel in watching the White House destroyed... and it was pretty clear that such a parallel was being drawn.

It's been a few hours, and now that I think about it, this was a bad movie. How V learned to expertly hack people (yes, I know, he's super strong, that doesn't mean he's super skilled), let alone complicated security systems is never explained. They never explain how V manages to escape tax agency scrutiny of his chateau. Also, Portman stuck out like a sore thumb. She clearly lacks the polish of the other actors in the movie and I don't understand how she continues to find work with performances that are so clearly squeezed out for the camera. Her scene with V after the BTN building attack was wretched.

The movie is good for the discussions it will create of ideas expressed, beyond that... m'eh.


Hm... F for F@ggot. Yesss...

[JackOfHearts]

Reccomended reading for Hutt: Art of Deception By Kevin Mitnick. Also look up Art of Intrusion, another book by him, though one I admittedly haven't read yet.

[Faggot the Hutt]

Originally Posted by JackOfHearts

Reccomended reading for Hutt: Art of Deception By Kevin Mitnick. Also look up Art of Intrusion, another book by him, though one I admittedly haven't read yet.

1. Kevin Mitnick is a, excuse the pun, hack. The website for his Internet security firm has been hacked numerous times; the result of his skills being blunted by his prison term and probation. He is nothing more to the hacker community than a reminder of the past.

2. A script kiddie wouldn't be sophisticated enough to crack a major government security system. Besides, if the cracker can read the books, so can the anti-crackers, which cancels out any benefit of having read the book on hacking.

3:

10 JackofHearts
20 JackofHearts = Moron
30 Goto line 20

[Feltan]

Originally Posted by Faggot the Hutt

10 JackofHearts
20 JackofHearts = Moron
30 Goto line 20

That won't compile. You forgot to define your variables.

Regards,
Feltan

[Faggot the Hutt]

Originally Posted by Feltan

That won't compile. You forgot to define your variables.

Regards,
Feltan

Yeah... It's been years since I've worked with BASIC. Ah, well.

[Kenji]

I thought the movie was neat, but then I generally try to turn off my brain when I watch movies; makes it much more fun =)

I really like the rhyme for Guy Fawkes Night, though.

Remember, remember, the fifth of november,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

I think I have a weakness for nursery rhymes. Simple pleasures for simple minds, I suppose.

[Zasha]

it's interesting to have john hurt playing the dictator, because he did star in the movie version of 1984.

[JackOfHearts]

Originally Posted by Faggot the Hutt

1. Kevin Mitnick is a, excuse the pun, hack. The website for his Internet security firm has been hacked numerous times; the result of his skills being blunted by his prison term and probation. He is nothing more to the hacker community than a reminder of the past.

2. A script kiddie wouldn't be sophisticated enough to crack a major government security system. Besides, if the cracker can read the books, so can the anti-crackers, which cancels out any benefit of having read the book on hacking.

1) True. Though I didn't mean that as a reference to his hacking skill, or V's. Though V did seem charismatic enough in the novel ( I read the book, not the comic) to be very capable of social engineering. That's all you need really. http://www.jinx.com/scripts/details.asp?affid=-1&productID=122

2) Again, I agree with you. Though whose to say what kind of experiance V has. His identity is never revealed, and so the extent of his talents are never fully known as well. You assume he's a script kiddie, though he may very well have been someone well acquainted with computers and cracking.

[Faggot the Hutt]

Originally Posted by JackOfHearts

You assume he's a script kiddie, though he may very well have been someone well acquainted with computers and cracking.

What did the book have to say? I've read neither that or the comic.

[JackOfHearts]

Originally Posted by Faggot the Hutt

What did the book have to say? I've read neither that or the comic.

The book doesn't say anything. It doesn't tell you anything about V's past, aside from his imprisonment at Larkhill, and even the details in that are sketchy. So he may very well be a computer genious, or someone with intimate details of the police computer system.

[Sisyphus]

I liked the movie. I liked it enough to buy the graphic novel the next day. The book is interesting, albeit a bit outdated.
The movie's strongest moments where when it followed scenes directly from the book.
Hugo Weaving's voice as V was mesmerizing.

[Valerio Versace]

Ok, I read the comic maybe... two years ago, and I was waiting anxiously for the movie to come out.
It was a bit disappointing, but I liked it.
The most beautiful scenes are, in my opinion, the two that follow the comic most faithfully (highlight to show)
(the death of the doctor and Evey's imprisonment)
I don't understand those who try their best (and it's not much at all) to complain about Natalie Portman's acting skills. Here acting is basically dependent on the quality of the script: in fact, you may notice that in the scenes which are most similar to the comic, she performs a lot better than in those written from scratch by the Wachowski brothers. Sure, she's still young as an actress and not as good or talented as some others may be, but she's FAR from being a bad actress. If Alan Moore wrote the movie's whole screenplay, her interpretation would surely have been a lot better. I was skeptical about her role in the movie too at first, but then I totally changed my mind when I saw how she played some key scenes (and by noticing that she has CLEARLY read the comic with A LOT of attention, unlike some other actors).
In the end, I didn't think that the Wachowski brothers could fit the whole comic in roughly two hours, but they did, and even added some stuff to lower the quality of the original story. I'm not one of those who always complain about the movie, comparing it to the original source (be it a comic or a book), but I think that the brothers should have been a lot more humble, sticking to the original screenplay of the comic. They can't hope to change Moore's story with their ideas: he's just far better than them, they can't even compete. They just wanted to make it THEIR story, and it will never be.

I can't say anything about the voice acting (maybe Portman's was very bad, that's why so many people complain about her) because I watched it in Italian, and I can't find a way to watch it in English, but the Italian voice actor for V was in fact very bad (he always tried to sound too funny, failing miserably), while the voice actress for Natalie Portman was quite good.