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liri
I am such an X-Men whore. It was like, WARREN OMG! BEAST! DARK PHOENIX! HOLY CRAP ARE THEY DOING FATAL ATTRACTIONS IN THIS ONE TOO?! I mean, I knew Beast would be in this, and was thrilled, because, dude, BEAST! and Warren was foreshadowed in the last movie and Dark Phoenix was the logical next storyline, but Fatal Attractions thrills me inordinately because I have only the haziest idea of what happened in it the first time, essentially "Wolverine + Magneto = Wolverine - adamantium = YEARS OF FANBOY DEBATE" and possibly there was Logan/Jean stuff too, to justify the double entendre in the title, but in the movies I like Wolverine, so things involving him don't make me instantly sleepy the way they did in the comics. So this should be good. Also, Bobby/Rogue in the trailer, so presumably the brief mention of Gambit's name in the last movie does not mean he will be swooping in to cheese Rogue off her feet and make me crabby. Also, BEAST!
As for the actual movie, um, I just took a couple of sinus meds to help with the low-level headache I've had all week, so this will probably get steadily less coherent. I mean, I hope to start coherent, not like the hyperventilating above, but I doubt I'll stay that way.
I just got the TPB for Xmas, so my love of the comic is fresh, though not uncomplicated. Alan Moore's apparent belief that anarchy can lead to a healthy, moral, non-chaotic society requires far more faith in human nature than I possess, and the sequence where V brainwashes/tortures Evey into holding on to her beliefs was, um, troubling. To say the least.
And they kept it in the movie. I was surprised, and pleased, because I really expected them to soften it and that would have pissed me off. They did give Evey a lot more room for outrage and had her take off on her own afterwards, instead of hanging around with him the way she did in the comic; they may have made him express a bit more regret, but I don't remember quite how it went in the original.
In reviews, I'd picked up that Evey worked at the TV station in the movie edition, and I was peeved about that going in, because I'd also picked up that the sequence that leads to her meeting V was otherwise unchanged - out after curfew, she's accosted by some men who turn out to be cops and nearly raped before he rescues her. The thing was, in the comic, she was out after curfew because she was trying to pick up some extra money as a hooker. And, you know, if she's trying prostitution then it's not as bad if she's raped, what? I was still willing to give the movie a chance, but that particular bit of sanitizing irked me.
They took an intermittently free hand with things; they made Evey a bit more active and aware, rather than just getting hauled into the vortex that is V and listening to his speeches, and after he takes her in, she actively decides to get away and goes to Gordon, the man she'd been going to see the night it all started. In the comic she'd been kicked out by V for not believing enough in his cause, and ended up with someone she'd never met, a kindly older man she fell in love with, who was involved in the black market and was eventually killed. Gordon (or the movie version - I can't remember the name of Evey's lover, he might have been Gordon), though, turns out to be gay; he'd asked her out for appearances' sake, and he's another way of showing how oppressive the government is, and the way people have to try to live under it. And suddenly the change in Evey's reason for being out and the change in her employment make sense, they're to bring him in earlier in the story, and I mind so much less when it serves a narrative purpose.
They cut a lot of the secondary characters from the comic - which it's hard to hold against them, because I had a hard time keeping track of them in a medium where I could flip back to check their names - and cut out V's whole weird theme of being married to Justice and the subplot about him hacking into the surveillance system. I did kind of miss the story of one of my favorite of the secondary, establishment characters - the woman, whose name escapes me, who was married to the verbally and maybe physically abusive detective. After he was killed - I think in a run-in with V - she had an affair with one of his colleagues out of a mix of loneliness and a need for an established male supporter, and later, she got a job working in the seedy cabaret that was a recurring setting in the comic. As the chaos mounted, she took to carrying a gun because she felt unsafe - a touch I liked because it acknowledged that for actual people who have to live in the world, it's not as simple as revolutionary fervor and pure liberty.
I forget if the "maybe the government unleashed all the viral plagues for its own purposes" subplot was there in the original, and I can't seem to find my copy to check (hence all the "um, this guy, I forget his name..." detail.) I think the original was far less occupied with the means of political takeover than with the point that regardless of how or why your freedom's eroding, you need to hang onto it with both hands.
For some reason, the blood during V's big, climactic kicking of fascist ass did not freak me out, and normally I'm the world's most squeamish movie viewer.
I was kind of sad that the "Viking funeral" line was cut. I'm not sure why.
V felt more like a character and less like a big old Alan-Moore-sized mouthpiece in this. Relatedly, I imagine he hated the army of Guys, or would have if he were ever to see the movie or be told of that part, but I liked them. Visually striking is good, you know?
Some of the "LOOK AT THE VISUAL PARALLELS" stuff was very bludeon-y, particularly the scene with Evey in the rain intercut with V in the fire. But I liked it. I thought it got the feel right and that justified the changes, much the way I felt about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so either all adapted screenplays should call for someone to have the Wonka/V haircut, or I should get some sleep.
I... may try to finish it all coherently tomorrow. Maybe.
As for the actual movie, um, I just took a couple of sinus meds to help with the low-level headache I've had all week, so this will probably get steadily less coherent. I mean, I hope to start coherent, not like the hyperventilating above, but I doubt I'll stay that way.
I just got the TPB for Xmas, so my love of the comic is fresh, though not uncomplicated. Alan Moore's apparent belief that anarchy can lead to a healthy, moral, non-chaotic society requires far more faith in human nature than I possess, and the sequence where V brainwashes/tortures Evey into holding on to her beliefs was, um, troubling. To say the least.
And they kept it in the movie. I was surprised, and pleased, because I really expected them to soften it and that would have pissed me off. They did give Evey a lot more room for outrage and had her take off on her own afterwards, instead of hanging around with him the way she did in the comic; they may have made him express a bit more regret, but I don't remember quite how it went in the original.
In reviews, I'd picked up that Evey worked at the TV station in the movie edition, and I was peeved about that going in, because I'd also picked up that the sequence that leads to her meeting V was otherwise unchanged - out after curfew, she's accosted by some men who turn out to be cops and nearly raped before he rescues her. The thing was, in the comic, she was out after curfew because she was trying to pick up some extra money as a hooker. And, you know, if she's trying prostitution then it's not as bad if she's raped, what? I was still willing to give the movie a chance, but that particular bit of sanitizing irked me.
They took an intermittently free hand with things; they made Evey a bit more active and aware, rather than just getting hauled into the vortex that is V and listening to his speeches, and after he takes her in, she actively decides to get away and goes to Gordon, the man she'd been going to see the night it all started. In the comic she'd been kicked out by V for not believing enough in his cause, and ended up with someone she'd never met, a kindly older man she fell in love with, who was involved in the black market and was eventually killed. Gordon (or the movie version - I can't remember the name of Evey's lover, he might have been Gordon), though, turns out to be gay; he'd asked her out for appearances' sake, and he's another way of showing how oppressive the government is, and the way people have to try to live under it. And suddenly the change in Evey's reason for being out and the change in her employment make sense, they're to bring him in earlier in the story, and I mind so much less when it serves a narrative purpose.
They cut a lot of the secondary characters from the comic - which it's hard to hold against them, because I had a hard time keeping track of them in a medium where I could flip back to check their names - and cut out V's whole weird theme of being married to Justice and the subplot about him hacking into the surveillance system. I did kind of miss the story of one of my favorite of the secondary, establishment characters - the woman, whose name escapes me, who was married to the verbally and maybe physically abusive detective. After he was killed - I think in a run-in with V - she had an affair with one of his colleagues out of a mix of loneliness and a need for an established male supporter, and later, she got a job working in the seedy cabaret that was a recurring setting in the comic. As the chaos mounted, she took to carrying a gun because she felt unsafe - a touch I liked because it acknowledged that for actual people who have to live in the world, it's not as simple as revolutionary fervor and pure liberty.
I forget if the "maybe the government unleashed all the viral plagues for its own purposes" subplot was there in the original, and I can't seem to find my copy to check (hence all the "um, this guy, I forget his name..." detail.) I think the original was far less occupied with the means of political takeover than with the point that regardless of how or why your freedom's eroding, you need to hang onto it with both hands.
For some reason, the blood during V's big, climactic kicking of fascist ass did not freak me out, and normally I'm the world's most squeamish movie viewer.
I was kind of sad that the "Viking funeral" line was cut. I'm not sure why.
V felt more like a character and less like a big old Alan-Moore-sized mouthpiece in this. Relatedly, I imagine he hated the army of Guys, or would have if he were ever to see the movie or be told of that part, but I liked them. Visually striking is good, you know?
Some of the "LOOK AT THE VISUAL PARALLELS" stuff was very bludeon-y, particularly the scene with Evey in the rain intercut with V in the fire. But I liked it. I thought it got the feel right and that justified the changes, much the way I felt about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, so either all adapted screenplays should call for someone to have the Wonka/V haircut, or I should get some sleep.
I... may try to finish it all coherently tomorrow. Maybe.