.: Roberts' Reviews - Movie Reviews :.

In the 1980's comic books were as hot as hockey and baseball cards with the local kids in my community. Marvel Comics seemed to be the label of choice with hip teen outcast characters such as Spider-Man and The X-Men, and every week new titles would arrive to be quickly read, bagged and tagged. DC Comics clogged the local stores display alongside the Marvel juggernauts, but with a catalogue containing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, DC just seemed…..dated.

Then in 1986, Frank Miller (Sin City) and Alan Moore (The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) reinvigorated the medium with the releases of Batman : The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen respectively. Together they brought people back to the label that had been around since the 1930's. The face of comics changed forever.

For Frank Miller, it didn't take long for Hollywood to come a knockin'. They solicited his pen for those terrible Robocop sequels and then splashed his name above the marquee with the release of Frank Miller's Sin City released last year.

Where Miller seemed to accept his role in the new world of film production acting as producer on his adaptations, Moore distanced himself from the industry that was so willing to use his work and bring his characters to a whole new audience on the big screen. The Hughes brothers were the first to take a Moore graphic novel and transform it into a full length feature with the Johnny Depp vehicle, From Hell in 2001. Moore declined to collaborate on the film's screenplay and the movie failed to connect with critics or audiences reaping in only $31 million of its $35 million production budget.

Next came The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen in 2003. Again, Moore shunned the opportunity to work on the script and again, the movie was a failure showing up on many critic's "worst of 2003" lists by the end of the year.

Then, fresh of the heels of their widely successful Matrix films, the Wachowski brothers (Larry and Andy) began the process of adapting Moore's V for Vendetta graphic novel. Fans for years of the work, the Wachowski's asked Moore to consult on the films production. Moore answered "I don't want any input in it, don't want to see it and don't want to meet him to discuss it". Ouch.

But that didn't dismay the Wachowski's from proceeding and they both sat by their word processors and completed a screenplay which they passed to first time director James McTeigue in 2004.

V for Vendetta is set in Britain in the not too distant future. The once mighty nation has become a totalitarian society complete with curfews, the banning of books, art and music and a police agency reminiscent of the 1930's Gestapo. In short, it is Hitler's wet dream.

But all hope is not lost. A masked man that runs through the London streets in a black hat and cape has taken it upon himself to start a revolution. Using terrorism as his voice, this caped crusader known only as "V" blows up a political mark on November 5th and dares to act again on the same date the following year.

With a year to spare and two hours of our full attention to waste, V saves a young lass named Evey (Natalie Portman) from three police thugs one particular evening and then takes the young girl under his wing where the two befriend each other for reasons that I still cannot comprehend.

In the next few months, Evey will be V's prisoner, hiding from the above ground police that have linked her to the freedom fighter. But as the months pass and as Evey becomes more aware of the terror and murder that likes in V's wake. She feels uncomfortable and even warns those that are about to become part of V's vendetta list.

But when she leaves the sanctity of V's underground, she is captured and tortured - reminded of the governments tactics towards the citizens of the once great power. This path would lead her back to V on the eve of November 5th, where decisions are made, lives are taken and history books are changed forever.

V for Vendetta's biggest problem is with the character V himself. First, he is non-menacing. Sure he can blow up a building like the best of them, but other scenes have him wearing a flowery apron while cooking toast and jousting like a unattended child with a display knight. Second, and maybe more importantly, his tactics are uncomfortable to watch in today's post 9/11 world. In his efforts to revolutionize, innocent bystanders are killed (including young children), innocent police agents are knifed down and in the most peculiar sequence, torture is used to provide a lesson to what was already a willing participant.

These all lead to us being unsympathetic towards our anti-hero. He is portrayed as nothing more than a terrorist. A thug. And if and when he meets his maker before his tactics are proven effective, as audiences we are alienated from caring.

And that is too bad for Portman who besides struggling with her accent, does seem to try hard in the action role. Hell, she shaves her head and wears one ridiculous little girl outfit all for the purposes of….well, I don't know exactly why, but it was still a courageous choice to participate knowing what was required.

All the above makes V for Vendetta one of the biggest disappointments of 2006. Having the Wachowski's name on the movie poster brought hope to a trailer that seemed lost in its message. But instead of giving us another Matrix type film that is as every bit intellectual as it is action oriented, V for Vendetta is nothing more than an excuse to blow up the Parliament Building. Even a sub plot followed by Stephen Rae as he tries to uncover the connection with each new dead body just seems void of any substance or emotional attachment.

Usually with movies that have action scenes, we can recommend a DVD rental once its release hits the shelves in a few months after the theatrical run is complete, but V for Vendetta hardly deserves that attention.

So hindsight might be 20-20 but Moore looks like he made the correct choice in spades for staying away from now the second dog of a film to be made from his very detailed work. Let's just hope that if Watchmen is ever adapted (and it is labeled as being in pre-production) that the jinx will finally be over.