Overall: Not too bad. Very pretty, good music, excellent acting, lots of rip-offs (...errr... tributes). Occasional interesting message.
Spoilers Be Here (including some "Phantom" thoughts)Emotional content: Lifted wholesale from "Phantom of the Opera", complete with roses, a smashed mirror, and our innocent female lead waking up to music and finding herself in the midst of an art-filled underground lair in the company of a masked man. A masked killer to be precise, who -- wait for it -- likes classical music. One novelty, in the sense of it not being stolen from somewhere else (at least not that I could identify) was V's simulacrum of the government's prison compound -- yikes. How lucky that Evey is such a forgiving girl, with such a strong psyche. A lesser mortal would have put a fist through his mask, at least. The remaining apparently "original" emotional stuff with the imprisoned lesbian actress and her roses was too hokey to count as emotional content and belongs under the next category:
Obligatory Fashionable Hollywoodisms: movie made from a comic book - check; villain with bad teeth - check; the female in a group of evildoers being the only one to repent her sins - check (only men are truly evil, you see); hurt child - check (80,000 of them in fact); lesbian kisses - check (fewer than 80,000 but making up for it with the most saccharine backstory I've ever heard); scenes of murder that have lots of blood but somehow no actual injuries - check, check, and check again.
Occasional Interesting Message: Present, sort of. At least there was no black and white resolution in the sense that the masked crowd looked more than a little sinister, and the scenes of the Parliament House being blown up were clearly intended to echo the World Trade Centre bombings. (Nice reference to bird flu, too). So basically, violence is violence and what differentiates one violent act from another is the cause -- who decides what is the right cause is of course a thornier question. One thing I did find interesting was the story of how the bad guys came to power, riding on a wave of terror they themselves had instigated. Sadly, all too realistic and applicable to real life events all over the world.
Roses: Where the heck did they come from? Aside from them being another, uh, homage to Phantom, where did they physically come from? What, V grew them in his underground lair?
Random thought: I'm curious whether the "Phantom" fandom is going to hold up Evey as an example to Christine, because Evey didn't remove the mask. Of course, Evey already knew that she wouldn't find anything pretty underneath, having seen his hands and heard the fire story. Moreover, unlike Erik, V did not seem to have any deep-seated need for someone to look at his face as it was, so the whole point is moot. However, I don't think that will stop the Christine-bashers. I am fully expecting Natalie Portman to become fandom favourite for "The Next Christine".
Another random thought: Hugo Weaving continues to impress me. I loved him in "Little Fish", and that role (an ageing ex-footballer with a heroin addiction and a broken heart) could not have been more different from this one. He was perfect in both, which fills me with the deepest respect for his range and ability. Natalie Portman was also good, especially in the prison scenes. As a side note, one of the best supporting roles was actors was Stephen Rea as Finch, the detective who comes to question the establishment and eventually allows Evey to carry out V's plans. Very believable, and even somehow not as cliche as the role could have been.
On the whole, I quite enjoyed it, for all my grumbling, but I wouldn't say it's going to find its way to the shortlist of my favourites any time in the future.
-
-
10.04.2006 в 04:24-
-
10.04.2006 в 04:25-
-
10.04.2006 в 06:07