'MF' for Mixed Feelings

Rating: 6/10 (20 March 2006)

After long delays and much hype, Alan Moore's impressive V for Vendetta has been released. Push back due to a main actor dropping out, and a host of other problems, V for Vendetta opened to an eager public wondering if this movie could live up to the standard given it. Also, would it be able to overcome the gossip and rumors that had been spoken of do to the problems with just filming it. Oh, and who can forget that Natalie Portman will have a shaved head? Will wonders never cease!?
I cannot speak for everyone else since a movie like this will bring out different emotions and feelings over the portrayal of a 'terrorist' being a 'hero'. However, after several days of thinking upon V for Vendetta, and reading the graphic novel it is based upon, I have come up with my conclusions.
Vendetta starts off with the brutal attempted assault on Evey (Natalie Portman) at the hand of the 'fingermen' (no pun intended). Government agents who enforce strict curfew laws and do other such draconian laws set up by Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt), who would win a Hitler look a like contest any day. When the fingermen are about to harm Evey, in comes a mysterious hero wearing a Guy Fawkes who of course saves Evey while beating up the fingermen.
Evey, obviously taken back by a man who wears a mask, openly beats fingermen, and speaks in such a poetic way, learns that his name V (Hugo Weaving). Following him for a short 'engagement' she is stunned when the Old Bailey is destroyed right before her eyes. All the while V is conducting an 'orchestra' as music fills the streets of London on the very same loud speakers the government uses to inform the public of curfews.
What happens next is a serious of further attacks on the state and those who harmed V in the past, the learning of what V's history is (though we never really know), the attempt of Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) to discover who V is and stop him while he discovers the truth behind the government and it's past actions, and the sudden transformation of Evey into a timid citizen into a freedom fighter with a shaved head. While this promises much, instead Vendetta fails and slowly comes to an uninteresting conclusion. Too much time is spent trying to portray an totalitarian state while not enough is spent showing how it is deal with. Most of V's actions, few that we see, are somehow supposed to topple a regime within a year. Again, seeing more of these actions and their means would have made this a bit more believable.
Another factor which slowed the movie down in its plot was the 'torture' of Evey. Through a series of brutal interrogations, bad food, a note from a woman who was oppressed before she was, and eventual discover of courage Evey never knew she had, we learn that it was V himself was behind all of this. His attempt of showing that when Evey loses her fear, she gains strength. I understand the meaning behind this and what it was supposed to to do for Evey. However, being placed towards the middle/ending of the movie only caused it to lag. A better placement would have been to have Evey come to these conclusions much earlier without having the story go over much repeated information such as overcoming fear and holding onto freedom.
In the end, V manages to strike a deal with one of Sutler's right-hand men who betrays the dictator to V's sense of justice. Of course, V then turns on this would be replacement and finishes off what we are to guess is the major leadership of the party and government. Parliament is blown up, everyone challenges the government, and freedom is restored even though V does not live to see the day.
A moving story about freedom and oppression? I would have to say no. A plot drawn with not enough substance (Alan Moore might agree since he didn't like the movie) slows what could have been one of the better movies for 2006. It's not a bad movie, far from it. The acting is well done (especially Weaving's ability to speak in such a poetic way and in a convincing manner) as is the action sequences. Again, though, it proves to be nothing special.
6 out of 10