V for Vapid
Saw V for Vendetta at the weekend.
The more I reflect on it, the more disappointed I am with it.
The woman who fell asleep next to me and snored probably didn't help. But it also goes some way to saying more about the film that I could.
It was an interesting experience. All the constituent parts were there for a great movie - script, performances (except Portman), feel. But somehow it failed in execution for me. Portman was struggling with the accent, and was thoroughly unconvincing and unsympathetic, the pacing didn't sweep you into the drama, and (unlike, I'm informed, the source material) it was far too 'black and white' as to who was "good" and who was "bad". The ill placed special-effects fest of the knife fight at the end added little, and detracted lots. What we ended up with was bitty, badly directed, lacking dramatic pace, unsubtle and ultimately rather dull.
The country "doesn't need a building," V says. "It needs an idea." Yes, but "V" (neither character nor movie) doesn't have any ideas, except for a misbegotten belief in cleansing acts of violence. The quarter-century-old disgruntled fantasies of two anti-Thatcherite comic-book artists, amplified by a wealthy movie company, and ambushed by recent history, wind up yielding an uninspiring and disappointing muddle.
Shame.
I shall be reading the comic book this week. I'm informed it is "better".
EDIT: I didn't actually dislike the film that much. It's just that every time I think about it, I come up with a Colombo style "and another thing", and it becomes even further unraveled, like so much bad needlework.
BSG 2.20 was just plain weird. No spoilers, but those who have seen it will know what I mean. Razors and gym memberships all round next season I hope (ahh.. the joy of vague, non-committal references).