having fun

The Riddick game is tons of fun. Of course, I set it on "easy" cuz I wanna get used to it. It's still challenging to me, which just goes to show how much I suck at FPSs. Then again, I don't play to be 1337, just enjoy the game. Mwoohoo hahaha!

re: V for Vendetta

Also, you know, since we (the audience) know who is playing V, just knowing it'a a white guy kinda changes how you will watch the flick. If they were going to part from the original story, they should have NOT revealed who was going to play V. Part of the beauty of it is that you really don't know who V is as a reader, meaning, he's no one you meet within the story in any context other than just V. His character is exactly who you are given him to be, no more, no less. IT makes him more of what he is intended to be: a metaphor which becomes legendary. Having a face to equate with the mask changes your perception of V. Much like knowning who played Marv in "Sin City"; I looked to see the actor underneath the makeup for a little while.

The more I think about it, the more it bugs me. I'm sure I'm going to enjoy the movie nonetheless (although I'm also sure I will be critiquing it to death after I see it but that's how I am) but I guess I'm thinking in a larger sphere... worrying about audience reaction. I suppose it's a good thing purely from a profit perspective as having a famous WHITE actor playng the part will make the audience warm to the character or even like him but there again is something I don't think is good for the story itself. V isn't supposed to be likeable per se, he's supposed to represent something, an idea, a fixture of integrity and individual rebellion against a larger system that has begun to break down. V stands for liberty (as clearly evidenced from his monologue to the statue) and that is his mistress until he realizes how liberty has been forsaken for order. Exploitation of fear and hatred is incremental to the loss of freedom and loss of freedom happens all in the name of "security" and structure. V represents the first stand of revolution amongst opression and giving him a known face mars the metaphorical nature of his character.

Alright, I promise I won't babble about this anymore. I want people to see this movie. I want people to read the book. I want people to enjoy it. I just hope the deeper meaning of the tale is not lost altogether.

last bitch about V for Vendetta *comments contain spoilers*

y'know, I didn't say it before because I'm kinda scared of offending people but thinking on it, I shouldn't be scared (even just a little) and since when did being scared of anything ever stop me? Well this isn't going to be a first...

I'm betting the primary reason they got a white actor to play V (and don't even think about suggesting that it's because he's famous and beloved fer crissakes there's plenty of famous and beloved non-white actors) is because V is all of the following:

intelligent
erudite
clever
cunning
sophisticated
knowledgeable about culture, sociology, psychology and science

Now, can you honestly see the majority of people (especially Americans) accepting a non-white who is all of the above? Frankly I think most Americans won't accept any non-white actor playing a character who is as intelligent and knowledgeable as V is. (If you don't know the story, trust me, V is blindingly intelligent and more knowledgeable than about 99% of people walking around TODAY and in the book's setting most people walking around are pretty damned stupid and ignorant) Can you see a theatre of mostly white adults sitting through a movie wherein the only non-white in the story is the most intellectual? Yeah, right, I'm betting that notion just makes people squirm. Of course, there's the fact that you don't even find out that V is non-white until much of the story has passed. And of course I do believe the majority of comic-lovers are perfectly okay with accepting any jumbled scenario no matter how much it goes against their view of "normal"

In any case, another point to V is that he is the only person in the story (at least in the beginning) who is willing and able to see the larger picture of life. His focus of life is beyond himself. His whole persona is that of "a concept in action"; V works with only the future in mind. His concerns are with what is happening to his (and our) world, not with how he's gonna get by day-to-day. Every character in the story (at least in the beginning) is concerned only with themselves and how to make it through another day except for a couple of people who are overly immersed in the past. No one in the entire story has any concern for the future. Except V. Only V sees beyond the present and incorporates the past in a way that helps him discern the possibilities for the future. He is thus the only character empowered enough to make choices and decisions that have any real impact. Slowly, V affects people such that they feel forced (and sometimes he does force them) to take action of their own. How each person chooses to act belies their true intentions and their focus: most of them act only to "secure" themselves.

How can any of this be acceptable to Americans if a non-white is portraying V? I suppose that it wouldn't.
They could have at least not revealed who would be playing him though.