How the same movie plot can go well...or go rotten

A couple of weeks ago we took a kid-free, "adult-time" weekend. During said weekend, we went to two movies. One I hoped would be good, and I was not disappointed. The other I was near certain would be awful, but wanted to see it anyway. I was also not disappointed.

Both movies had a heavy, "1984"-ish repressive establishment at the center of the plot, and both featured a violent rebel bent on its overthrow. One used the plot as a fertile grounding for themes about strength, spirit, and the need to question authority. The other used it to show off Matrix-esque sword fight scenes involving a half-assed bio-engineered vampire and a bad guy whose big line was "Are you mental?"

By now, if you've been paying attention to the movie scene, you know I saw "V for Vendetta" and "Ultraviolet".


The first one we watched was "Ultraviolet", starring the lovely but relatively talentless Milla Jovovich. I knew it was going to suck. I went anyway. It sucked even more than I thought it would. One of our friends who was with us, who admits readily that she enjoys bad movies, sat there at the end saying, "What the fuck was that? That didn't make any sense." And indeed it didn't.
It was written by Kurt Wimmer, who wrote and directed the also-1984-ish catastrophe "Equilibrium". He also had a hand in writing "The Recruit", which was actually a passable film - but directed by someone else, and I think that's why it stands out from his other disasters. Aside from clinging to this oppressive 1984 rip-off theme he seems to have going on, Ultraviolet tries to rely on "plot twists" that just don't make any sense. I mean none. They are so arbitrary...half way through the movie, I thought I had one of the "twists" pegged. But no, he wasn't that predictable. He tried a different twist that a) didn't make sense and b) had no grounding in the story other than he wrote it that way. The villain's motive was the same way. So if you are looking for a plot, there really isn't one, and it winds up hurting your head. And if you want to see Milla looking hot and doing some dance-fighting-type-stuff, you're better off watching "Fifth Element", which had better writing and better fight coreography even though it was just Luc Besson sucking up to his wife by having her referred to as "perfect" some 30 times in the movie. If I ever meet Kurt Wimmer, I'm going to punch him in the face and say "That's for Equilibrium," and when he recovers from that I'm going to kick him in the nuts and say, "and that's for Ultraviolet."
Hey, it's better dialogue than he can pull off.

Anyway, next day we went to see "V for Vendetta". It also relied on an oppressive, big-brother type government. It made good use of it, however. The movie is based on a "graphic novel" (aka comic book) by Alan Moore. I have heard that Alan Moore wanted his name removed from it and not to be associated with it. If that is true, I think it probably has more to do with the aftermath to his reputation from the last movie adaptation of one of his comic...err..."graphic novels", "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". As a writer, I'd be afraid to have my name attached to a movie after that piece of shit, too.
"V for Vendetta" was written (in terms of the screenplay) by the Wachowski brothers, who probably titled their drafts of the screenplay "We're really, really sorry about the second and third Matrix movies. Really, our bad." But this story was really quite good, following a sensible plot full of political commentary (albeit thinly veiled) about the state of our country, and about our duty as citizens to protect our rights against those who would usurp them for their own power.
Combine the good plot with some excellent cinematography and the acting chops of the excellent cast including Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, and Stephen Rhea, and you have yourself a very good movie.
In case you saw the movie but aren't big on history, yes, there really was a Guy Fawkes.

There's my movie reviews for now. In other news, I went to the emergency room this past Friday because I had the worst earache I've ever felt and was in excrutiating pain. Apparently, a bunch of fluid drained from my sinuses and was trapped in my ear, pushing my eardrum out of shape. OUCH. Seriously, it's the worst pain I've been in that didn't require surgery. So I've spent the last three days doped up on Vicodin and holding wet washcloths and a hot-water bottle against the side of head to get the fluid to drain out. YUM. Just a little nastiness for ya there, because I know you wanted those delicious details. I'm getting better, but it is still a serious bitch.

Enough for now. Mattbear out.