I had no plans to see V for Vendetta despite the fact that it has the coolest posters I've seen in a long time. For one thing, I'm not really part of the Alan Moore cult--I like some of his stuff, but people are always saying how he's "elevating" comics, and I like comics because they are lurid and cheesy. So you really shouldn't try to "elevate", for example, a title like Swamp Thing. Just my opinion.
For another thing, movies in which good-lookin' actresses shave their heads simply don't have a good track record: "Alien 3," "G.I Jane," "Star Trek: The Motion Picture."
Finally, the involvement of the Wachowski brothers, who believed the hype about themselves and followed an entertaining pastiche of Philip K. Dick ideas and Hong Kong action with one of the most turgid pieces of crap I've ever seen. I just imagine them sitting around going, "you know, we made an entertaining sci-fi action movie, and now we're makin' two more. And you know what every action franchise needs?" Pause, and then they say together, as they high-five: "Cornel West!" Ugh.
But then David Denby got into such a state about V for Vendetta here that I almost want to see it now.
(There's a nice response to Denby's review here , but it neglects ot mention one of the most hateful consequences of Britain's Section 28 law, which criminalized the "promotion of homosexuality." It led directly to Billy Bragg's a capella number "Tender Comrade", which is earnest and incredibly terrible and which he had the bad judgment to do as an encore when I saw him live in '88.)
