With tangerine trees and marmalade skies...

WHAT a strange, incoherent mess of a film V for Vendetta was. It really was a genuinely confusing tangle of conspiracy theories, fireworks and mayhem, with a spectacular but completely nonsensical ending. This hugely complex plot, with the potential to be amazingly controversial and really exciting, was built up, centred around governmental corruption and repression, then at the climax of the film they simply stuck in an excessively long matrix-style fight, with graphic slow-motion blood spurting everywhere like something out of Kill Bill, and ended the film with a huge firework display, leaving everything unresolved. Large chunks of the plot seemed completely ludicrous, for example: how the fuck was V actually created? That part so did not make sense. Also, do we really use the word 'bollocks' that much? In what way did V represent an 'idea'? Why did the bombs on the tube say "British Fertiliser" on them and was this significant to the plot? How did Stephen Fry come back to life? How was V not dead after a five minute shooting scene? And why the hell was Natalie Portman even vaguely tempted to kiss V's mask? LAMEST kissing scene EVER.

The film seemed to be attempting to tackle some challenging political issues, but it was all ridiculously cliched and uninventive: the government's hatred of Muslims and homosexuals for example, and completely undeveloped. It was trying to deal with issues like terrorism without seeming politically biased or at all radical. Most terrorists have a political viewpoint, whereas V just seemed to want to overthrow the government and churned out all this ambiguous crap about there being no such thing as coincidence and there never being certainty, only opportunity. We find out Evey's parents were political activists, but never discover what they were fighting for. We hear about the 'face of London' having been involved in a string of wars, but not how this is relevant to what V was fighting for. And the scenes about the politician/detective guy who didn't seem to be on anyone's side just seemed too much like an episode of 'Midsummer Murders' to be even remotely interesting. The whole thing was warped and stupidly complicated. It could be that the fact that it was based on a comic book made it difficult to dramatise, but look at 'Ghost World', classic movie.

It was pretty damn entertaining though, and quirky and unpredictable and gripping at times, and of course NP was stunning. And I have to admit there were some very funny parts. For example some chav using his V mask to rob a shop. And finding out that the corrupt fascist government were originally Tories...

Got home after that to find Queen Mary only want 30 points and are 4th in the country for French. Maybe I will go to uni next year. It frustrates me how much everything's going to cost. In introducing those extra tuition fees the government have unleashed a huge privatisation movement, in a few years time the better universities will realise they can get away with charging more, and fees will start to vary, and the whole fee-paying scheme will spiral out of control. I hate the way the university system has been corrupted because it is the stage at which private school students suddenly feel the need to integrate themselves into society. I hate the way offers are made in a highly biased way based on predicted grades, at the total disposition of the teachers, who are under no obligation to be fair and accurate. It doesn't surprise me that so many people from the Anglo want to go to places like Bath and Warwick, these expensive, priveledged havens that their parents will happily pay for. Uni doesn't seem like such a big deal now I know I can easily get into a course that's reasonably interesting and literally closer to home than the Anglo is. It makes everything so much easier not having to think about student loans, accomodation, grades and travel arrangements.

I just made the perfect cup of tea, golden brown and hot and strong and sweet. While the kettle was boiling I danced wildly to Hard-Fi and ate a banana.

Goodnight.
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