Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

**A Warning to the wary: There Be Spoilers Here**

Papyrus beats celluloid. Everytime. Take for example the Wachowski brothers' latest offering: V for Vendetta. Or would Wachowski siblings be more appropriate now? But I digress. So, as I was saying, V for Vendetta. Alan Moore's original concept, I thought, was quite novel. An elaborate game of 'lets pretend'. Lets pretend that a small nuclear war has destroyed what once used to be the Big Two, namely America and the USSR. Now let us pretend that Britain falls into chaos and a brutal fascist party called Norsefire with a decidedly anti-non-white agenda. And now let us pretend that a half-crazed escapee from a detention camp (a la Auschwitz) who also happens to be the subject of some government sponsored experiment goes on a bloody vendetta against the government. Nothing amiss here. After all, Moore was doubly blessed with a large detritus of real events to draw from: The cold war was all the rage in politcal circles of the time and the memory of Nazi Germany was fresher in the minds of his generation than ours. Albeit, his understanding of the repurcussions of a nuclear war , however small was slightly naive, it can be forgiven, if only because it helps set a good scene for the story.

Whereupon I must admonish the siblings for their first mistake. It seems senseless to me that they omitted references to "those filthy arabs, asians, and blacks" due to, what to me seems to be a misguided sense of political correctness, when making a movie essentially about a man to tires to justify terrorism as a means to an end. Especially in a post 9/11 world (I know, I know, we mightn't take it all that seriously, but the Americans are quite anal about it, still).

How the Norsefire came to power in not something Moore touches upon. But the siblings Wachowski seem to have gone on a tangent all of their own to try and justify V's hate for and rage against the government. Some longwinded cockamamie story about a virus that Norsefire released into the general public then seemingly miraculously stumbled upon the cure for. In line, perhaps, with the party's motto: Strenth through Unity. Unity through Faith. But I must ask, why you sodden buffons, why? Why waste precious screen time in telling a concocted story that, at least to me seemed quite unnecessary? Historically, fascist governments have been evil and self-serving. I don't think it takes a genius to take it as a given that Norsefire should be any different. Or did you intend this to be a Disney movie, with every step, every motive explained in detail? Why waste time on justifying something obvious, time that could've been used to stay truer to the story?

Not all their tangents are unwelcome though. Stephen Fry's character for example; though he shares not much more than the name with the original character, his part was well written, and not entirely out of place.

One last criticism: why must every hollywood flick have a love angle? "I love you Evey." Come on! That's just not done.

But apart from that, as a standalone I think audiences that haven't or aren't going to read Moore's masterpiece are going to be quite satified. Though I have heard it being said that the dominoes were a bit much, I rather thought they added a little something to V's character. Apart from being quite visually stunning that is. So hats off to James McTeigue for directing a visual treat and to some extent to the Wachowski siblings for not completely butchering the original, V for Vendetta.

Remember, remember, the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason,
Should ever be forgot...