Everyday Systems

I went and saw V for Vendetta today. I liked it. It wasn't a litteral interpretation of the graphic novel, but I think they did a very good job considering what a complex work it is. They used images from the original to good affect. It had cool explosions. And they retained the basics of the message in the original work.

That said, in the last few scenes I shook my fist and said "Hollywood! Get your finger out of my movie!" Okay, I waited until I was out of the theatre, but I still did it. They could have kept the ending closer to the original and still had it make sense. Curse their happy-making Hollywood-nonsense!

On the whole, I reccommend it. Go see it. Unless you are a purist. I am a purist in some ways. I couldn't stand the Lord of the Rings movies. Not "pure" enough you see.

So, bottom line-purists stay away, flexible people go see it.

Went to see the movie with my daughter and really enjoyed it. As a former hippie, I found the concepts very interesting. It is amazing how many forms peace movements can take. I started crying at the point where the police inspector guy starts his "it all begins with some seemingly small thing..." speech. That was so terrifying a thought because at 60, I have lived long enough to know that is true. One minute you are singing flower children songs and believing that peace will truly come in your lifetime and the next minute the president, his brother, several spiritual leaders and a singer of peace songs are all dead and the dream died with them. With all that has happened since then, I keep hoping that the next generation or the next will pick up the thread and make it happen this time. I have hope watching shows like Extreme Home Makeover and seeing stories about people helping people. I like seeing crowds of people wearing Guy Fawkes masks I guess. I like it even better when they take them off. Well, didn't mean to run off like that but it was an interesting movie.
I haven't read it yet so I don't know about the hollywood ending so I will have to wait to comment on that.

Interesting that you didn't like the Lord of the Rings. I loved parts of it. The elves weren't real but how could they be. Tom Bombadill was missing. But lots of the rest was spot on for me.

Now, Harry Potter, that's another story. They started off ok but the last 2 were disappointing. Bring back the original director.

But I am rambling. Interesting post. Thank you.

Too funny how we all have such different perspectives....

I *loved* V For Vendetta, but I'd never read the GN. Part of it is probably that my own politics are similar to V's. Oh, except the killing-people-to-advance-one's-political-agenda part.

LOTR (which I regard as one 11-hour movie, with all the extended edition DVDs back-to-back) is my favorite movie of all time. And I had braced for the worst, I was really expecting it to suck. And it blew me away.

Harry Potter is a fabulous book franchise. JK Rowling deserves all the accolades (and money, heh) that she gets. However, I thought the 1st 2 films were dreadful. The 3rd one was quite good, imho, and the 4th one the best yet.