Hugo Weaving might very well be one of the more underrated actors in Hollywood today. He's as damn good as a Johnny Depp or a Christian Bale, yet the man doesn't get any acclaim. Hell, he was the best thing in the chaos that are the MATRIX sequels.
The testament to his greatness is when he's given the clunky philosophical lecture cram sessions that is Wachowski dialogue and actually make them both fluid and poetic. That and conveying intelligence and emotionalism behind a static Guy Fawkes mask. Weaving gives us one of the more compelling performances yet seen in a Hollywood comic book adaptation.
If only V FOR VENDETTA was as good as Weaving.
I don't blame Alan Moore at all for his problems with the movie. In his excellent 1980s graphic novel, he created a protagonist that was a proud violent anarchist, forcing audiences to support such a blatant terrorist in his war against the totaltarian UK of the future.
Writers/producers the Wachowski brothers took Moore's literary hate of Thatcherism and turned it into a cinema hate letter at the American neo-cons. Its still set in Britain a few years from now, but their V on page is an undisputed freedom fighter that isn't as challenging nor as interesting. Thank God for Hugo.
But I have to give any adaptation a fair chance, so I threw the book away and I was surprised to find this to be initially a really good picture. Its the best work yet based off a Moore book, and there are fine performances in the film. From Stephen Fry to Stephen Rhea, to John Hurt as the dictator, and even Natalie Portman brings home the bacon. Where was this good acting of hers in the STAR WARS prequels?
While its damn heavy handed in its list of complaints against Bush America, I still think there is a relevancy to it all. The President of Iran, who recently claimed that there are no homosexuals in his country, would probably feel right at home in Hurt's England.
A shame democracy in place, the moral police state making sure the streets are clean of the undesireables and outsiders, and the media mere puppetry for the government. There can't be any gays around if they're executed or persecuted into seclusion, right?
Yeah, I was really liking V FOR VENDETTA, until the 3rd act. Its like the movie realized it was running out of time, and decided to resolve the plot using clips, montages, and other nonsense this side of David Lynch's DUNE. Then the several logical problems I had with the conclusion.
If this tyrantical police state had surveillance up the ass, wouldn't they notice the manufacturing, buying, and distribution of hundreds of thousands of masks and capes? I mean, people take snap shots of old trains out in West Virginia, and Homeland Security detain their asses. But this meaner and more ruthless limey gestapo doesn't note it?
Better yet, how about the hero demanding the people rise up and overthrow the cabal, yet he does all the dirty work. Those poor folks dress up like dorks at Comic-Con, and all they do is watch a fireworks show. More of a coup de tat than a true revolution, isn't it?
'I understand what the Wachowskis and their pawn director James McTeigue tried to do. The masses united under a banner, one wholly provided and instigated by V himself, but couldn't they have pulled this off without screwing the pooch? It turns a damn good movie into a decent one with some smarts mixed with sillyness.
Better yet, they disregarded what I considered to be my favorite part of the graphic novel's ending where the protagonist, much like the namesake of his face, becomes a symbol that will live on with poignancy for eons to come.
Its a more deserving finale for Weaving's stunning tour de force.
