An interesting film about the impact of a future totalitarian British government, but there is so much more to this than meets the eye

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2014)

V for Vendetta focuses mainly on the characters of V (Hugo Weaving) and Evey (Natalie Portman) who happen to meet by chance when V rescues Portman from 'The Fingerman' - who were attempting to arrest her for being outside after the 11pm curfew. Their first encounter shows V explaining his plan to blow up the Houses of Parliament in exactly 12 months time on the 5th November. V demonstrates his point by blowing up another building in London. V then ups the ante by hi-jacking BTN (British Television Network) and outlines his plans for the 5th November to the entire nation. Upon hearing this, the police swarm the building and come close to arresting V, but Evey intervenes, but gets knocked unconscious as a result. V rescues her again and as Evey is deemed to be allied with V she finds herself on the run from both the government and the police with V.
I think where V for Vendetta truly excels is in its story telling - the Wachowski's do seem to be able to combine style and substance really well. Both The Matrix and V for Vendetta combined both elements really well. We are initially lead to believe that this is just one man with a vendetta against the government. Like Evey, we dismiss V as some sort of 'vigilante lunatic', but V has a reason to avenge the government and it's about a lot more than politics. V for Vendetta is rich in character development - the whole back story about V and his mother which explains why V targeted those in power. Whilst V is clearly opposed to living in a dictatorship, his main reason for vengeance is down to what they did to both him and his mother. I initially thought that the mask was a bit of a gimmick, but as soon as we see V's scarred hands and learn of the fire we can easily put two and two together. Likewise with Evey, we learn that her parents were political activists who were both killed when she was very young. The fact that we learn so much about the characters and their lives helped to care for them as people.
One of the strongest scenes in the film was when Evey has her head shaved and becomes incarcerated. It's quite clear that the whole point of this exercise was for V to test Evey and to make sure that she had no fear before releasing her. This was clearly done to make sure that Evey had the mental toughness to perform the 'final act'. This scene would have been even better if it hadn't been so predictable. The fact that I knew it was V that incarcerated her all along (the voice gave it away) did weaken the scene slightly, but overall it was still one of the best parts of the film.
There were weak areas in V for Vendetta; the fight choreography was generally good - although the final fight scene involving all the knives was a bit ridiculous. It was impressive to look at, but not entirely realistic - a little bit too much style perhaps? There was also the aftermath of V hi-jacking BTN; he manages to fit masks to several members of staff after tying their hands together so that the police won't be able to single him out. This was very clever, but how did he manage to get all the masks into BTN in the first place?
Despite the minor problems this is still a very good film - it's stylish, it's well acted and it's got a great story. The character of V is also interesting. It's a film that I found had much more to it than meets the eye.