We saw V For Vendetta last weekend. In an unforeseeable, precedent-setting turn of events, the book was better than the movie. I wish I could say that this disappointed me, but the truth is I’ve actually written quite a lot about this before and made peace with my thoughts on the matter. Also, as much as I’d like to be all, “They have forever stained the memory of my childhood’s most cherished piece of sequential art,” I finished the book roughly 45 minutes before showtime after putting it off for 20 years.

(In certain circles, circles living in the basements of their parents for far longer than is advisable, the graphic novel “V for Vendetta” is considered one of the classics of Western literature. It is embarrassing to be in those circles and not have read the book, but then it is embarrassing to be in those circles. Having the comic book guys look down on you only feels bad until you take a second to think about what’s happening. To said guys, though, the author Alan Moore is like the four-color Steinbeck, which makes it all the more amazing that adaptations of his work always end up like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. His deal with Satan is very carefully worded and covers the printed media only. Read that fine print, kids!)

After I saw the movie, I generally liked it, although they changed a straightforward, well-articulated fascism-vs.-anarchy plot into a watery Bushbash meanies-vs.-”Freedom” thing that comes across a little “Sex Pistols covered by Avril Lavigne.” I would also like to reiterate that, if I ever become a fascist dictator, the first thing I will outlaw is slow motion photography. (Ooh, Bullet Time. Many’s the time I watched action movies before the freaking Matrix and thought, “This action is exciting enough, I guess, but it could be slower.“) The more I think about the movie, the more I realize what a bad idea it is to do so.

You may be two sentences away from me ruining this movie. Certainly in a “Spoiler Alert” way, and maybe in a larger sense, depending on whether I understood what I was watching.

This occurred to me this evening: in the movie, the big ol’ exploding chip on V’s shoulder is caused by the fact that the fascist government threw him in a concentration camp and experimented on him and others to devise a lethal virus (and its cure) for biological warfare.

Later, detectives on V’s case are told a story about a conspiracy. Apparently, the fascist government got voted into power by exploiting the fear that was created when everyone got sick with the new virus, which the fascists had unleashed after creating it themselves.

Creating it at the concentration camp. Which they didn’t have until after they were voted into power.

If I am remembering the movie correctly, that may be the biggest plot hole in any movie I have ever seen or heard about. So… you could always go see it for that.