Thought-provoking, uplifting, and inspiring. I have never seen anything else that compares.

Rating: Null/10 (10 June 2010)

Cinema is an art form that is all too often cheapened by unimaginative, lazy and dull film-making. V for Vendetta has none of these flaws. This is not to say that it is a flawless film; rather, I cannot imagine anything that would improve the overall experience. Technically, the movie is more than sound, it is excellent. Performances are uniformly powerful and nuanced, camera-work suits the design elements and from the script to the editing, the film looks and feels coherent. This is, however, something of a high-brow action film and as such there is an inherent contradiction, an attempt to entertain with philosophy. The Matrix shied away from the deeper questioning of V for Vendetta in favour of awesome technical wizardry, and was a much bigger popular success as a result. While V is undeniably pretentious and self-indulgent, it is well made enough to lift itself above such criticism. For anyone who sympathises with the ideologies championed by the eponymous character, this is a film that will leave you internally cheering. Or literally cheering, if you are less restrained than I.
The story itself is at once familiar and confronting – a totalitarian government pushes its citizenry too far, and a hero steps forth to try and overthrow the tyrants. But the genius of the storytelling is in the understatement. Vague references to events at 'St Mary's' and 'Threewaters' have little meaning to the audience until the later stages of the film, and the Wachowski Brothers have no qualms about revealing their plot slowly, using Stephen Rea's detective as a vehicle for their unveiling to their viewers (yes I am using alliterated V words. A tribute, I tell you). So much information is implied, rather than directly presented, that after numerous viewings there are still subtleties to the plot that are newly discovered. Piece by piece, the audience starts to understand the nature of the government that V rails against, and in doing so, they are positioned to question their own.
Given the film's release date, this is not only a controversial but also brave project. Highly critical of government responses to terrorism, this is a film as sensitive to the fear and paranoia of the post-9/11 world as it is in the anger and discontent about government responses to that tragedy. V's terrorism is never fully endorsed, and he alludes to the fact that he is attempting to create a world in which he may have no place, but his attacks on landmarks seem bloodless and the people he kills all either deserve it, as in his revenge on those who tormented him, or are faceless uniforms that steadily march into quite exciting if cartoonish action set pieces.
The graphic novel source is clear in both the imagery and atmosphere of V for Vendetta. Not only the painted Guy Fawkes mask, but the pseudo-Nazi flashbacks of the government's infancy and the fight scenes all seem a tribute to the original, if not a perfect adaptation (this film, however, is an achievement in and of itself and the relationship with the graphic novel is essentially trivia). The direction fetishizes the visual symbol, crowding V's lair with inter-textual contraband in a way that is at once pretentious, and also gifts the observant audience with another layer of meaning. There are so many cues to try and decipher that we never really learn what lies beneath the mask. (Ooh, cliché!) At its heart, V for Vendetta is a film about a message. The script foregrounds a concern with the power of ideas, and the constant battle to control and manipulate the media institutions of the diegetic world reinforces the film's paradox: this film attempts to undermine blind faith in the media we are presented, through a media presentation.
But what message is V attempting to convey to its audience? It asks questions about the nature of power and freedom, what it means to be human, the appropriate extent of political control, revision of history and the justification of violence. But the barrage of different points and ideas and suggestions doesn't undermine the central message – it clarifies it. Whatever we do, whatever the world becomes, we as a society need to keep asking deep questions, and answering them with our actions.
V for Vendetta may never receive the acclaim that it deserves, its own artistic indulgence a barrier for those who do not buy into the revolutionary and subversive undertones that permeate every aspect of the film. A work of genius, but like all genius, it is never completely accessible. This is still the most important film made this century, and one that will hopefully make its way into the school syllabuses of any truly free-thinking country around the world. Thought-provoking, uplifting, and inspiring. I have never seen anything else that compares.