Anarchy in the UK
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I have a weird relationship with Alan Moore book adapatations. I saw League of Extraordinary Gentlemen when it first came out, but on reading the book I realised what a terrible job they did with it. I await the forthcoming Watchmen- one of my favourite works of fiction ever- with extreme nervousness. And then there's this, V for Vendetta. This was the first Moore adaptation I went into having read the book first, and even to this day my feelings on it are mixed.

I started off disliking this movie- about halfway through my first viewing I was frowning at the screen. For my favourite example of V for Vendetta's silly changes-  take the name of John Hurt's character. In the novel he's a ruthless governor called Adam Susan- in the movie he's a ruthless governor called Adam Sutler. 'Sutler' being the first two letters of his original name added to the last four of history's most famous dictator- did they think the name Susan wasn't scary enough? That we wouldn't understand that This Is A Bad Guy unless his name sounded like 'Hitler'? I don't get it. It's such a little thing, but it annoys me.

It's all the little changes- Evey not being a prostitute at the beginning, the dialogue of V's address to England being changed- that annoy me, but fine, I accept that they might have had their reasons. But unfortunately- and it pains me to say this, because I really do think she's a good actress- Natalie Portman is not at her best in this. She has one or two magnificent scenes (for example, standing in the rain sobbing having just won her freedom) but the rest varies from average to bad. It's not even the accent, which is mostly alright- she's just not the Evey of the books, and the Evey of the movie isn't nearly as interesting. And it made my blood boil when someone on the DVD extras casually mentioned that they'd improved on the original Evey. They really didn't. Portman's Evey is a good Everywoman, but that's it.

Add to that some really dumb dialogue (Evey's 'Otherwise they would win...Win, like it was a game' deserves some special award, I think) and I think I know perfectly well why Alan Moore refused a credit for this. But- it does have its good points. Mostly of the acting variety. Hugo Weaving is terrific- it can't be easy to play a character whose face you never see, but he makes V real and sympathetic- and Stephen Fry is also great (even though you suspect he's just playing a variation of himself) to the point that I rather missed him in the third act. Also, there are some fantastically cool scenes- V and the dominoes comes to mind- and yes, the 'unmasking' at the very end (where you see all the main characters united)  is, I admit, a good addition.

This is a powerful movie, there's no denying it. It's tagline -'People should not be afraid of their governments- governments should be afraid of their people' - neatly sums up its political message: people should not just lie back, like Evey does in the beginning, and let their lives be governed. That, and the fact that if you don't sniffle at 'Valerie' - movie and book's finest hour- you're made of stone. This movie is a mixed bag, but when it's good, it's wonderful. However- most of that power and wonder is down to one man, and that is Alan Moore. Not that the directing isn't good- it is- but this is Moore's story, and for all the good things in this movie, I really wish they'd been a little more faithful to it.

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