(Laughs)

Gloomcookie, I cried at that also.

Part of the problem with waterworks, at least in the UK, is they need power to run. A few months ago we saw flooding in certain parts of the UK, which took out power substations - that in turn took out the waterworks. So during a flood, there were loads of places without running water as a result.

I actually kicked about the idea of trying to write a pilot for World Without People Story Thing. I'm glad I didn't, because I suck, but it started with somebody getting out of bed, having a shower, getting in their car to go to work, driving along with the camera pointing back down the road, as a 747 comes down... And crashes into the motorway behind the car (there's no pilot), taking out all the cars, whilst all the cars in front also veer off and crash into each other (no drivers).

Her performance surprised me so much - not a false note in there. It would have been really easy to go over the top with that character, but she hit it just right.

I'm pretty much a big Garner fangirl, actually. I was impressed as hell at her in the first episode of Alias (I thought she totally sold the whole wrecked-by-her-fiance's-death scene) and I continue to be pleasantly surprised by her range. (And despite all my expectations I loved 13 going on 30. )

I too was very pleased with the adaptation of V for Vendetta. Portman's accent was wobbly, but her performance was cracking, and I was happy with the changes they'd made to her character. What was really weird, though, was watching that film in a comparatively high-risk bomb target setting (swanky cinema in the Cairo's biggest [indeed, pretty much only] caters-to-rich-bastards mall) a few days after a bomb attack in one of the most touristy areas. Sitting in a cinema surrounded by (well-to-do, Westernised) Muslims, all of us watching this film about terrorism...that was distinctly odd.

This is one movie I just don't understand Alan Moore getting all pissy and Alan Moore-ish about. Of all his properties that have been turned into films, I thought this was the most true to the source.

I wonder if, because when it came out it was sort of being touted as being anti-Bush, when, in fact, it's just pro-anarchy or at least anti-totalitarianism.

Yeah, I think I may end up loving the V movie. I am toying with buying the DVD...but I will apparently have to make my own soundtrack album, as the full 1812, Street Fightin' Man, and EKAB are not on the official one.

We had to dodge a few flying anvils, but overall I was tolerant of the anvils because the movie retained the very stylized nature of the book (thanks Wachowskis!). However, I'm not sure what they have against the American Lung Association (making their logo the symbol of the fascists). More Christian Than Christian, I'm guessing.

Sitting in a cinema surrounded by (well-to-do, Westernised) Muslims, all of us watching this film about terrorism...that was distinctly odd.

I remember catching the end of FIGHT CLUB not long after 9/11, which wass freaky, but I think this may top the disturbingness of that.

I think it was a straw/camel's back thing.

I think it was a "Moore finally going completely off the deep end into crazy hermitdom" thing.

The V/Evey relationship was the big thing that didn't work for me in the movie. I didn't think they sold the romance very well, and so I had trouble putting the father/daughter stuff from the book out of my head, which meant that the "I fell in love with you!" scene was just kind of, "Wait, what? You did? When?"

But they win big points for making Evey an adult with a real personality and some agency, so it all evens out.

The romance angle was bizarre. I still stifle a giggle when she kisses the mask. And still I love.

I really need to watch V for V again. I've been wanting to give it a second viewing, but I liked it the first time through, and I agree with MM, re Mr. Moore's pissiness.

Jessica hit my problem with the movie on the head.

However, all things in perspective: Next to the unforgiveable bastardization of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the stupid tacked-on romance subplot of V for V was barely a blip. Also, for comics in general, I watched Superman Returns last night, which was so hokey and terrible and anvillicious that I longed for the relative subtlety of V for V.

(my memory on b might not be reliable, but I thought he said he hadn't and didn't want to see it).

Yeah, Moore saw a script and didn't like it, but he'd decided to have no part of any movie adaptations after getting sucked into a lawsuit over the LoEG movie.

Short version:

Moore felt that enough was enough and decided that if something was worth reacting to, "it was worth overreacting to." He stated "I'd have nothing to do with films anymore. If I owned the sole copyright, like with 'Voice Of The Fire,' there would not be a film. Anything else, where others owned copyrights, I'd insist on taking my name off future films. All of the money due to me would go to the artists involved. I'd divorce myself from the film process, the film industry and any adaptations. And I felt a sense of moral satisfaction."

There's a sidebar with his complaints about the V script as well, but I think he'd already decided he wanted no part of it before then. He did get pissy because the PR kept taking his name in vain.