More complex than an ordinary revenge plot

Rating: 9/10 (5 April 2006)

After reading reviews and hearing all the commentary on "V", I expected a good movie, but not like this! While it is obvious that "V" is out for revenge, this movie is not as "black and white" as you might think; it's varying shades of gray. I think one of the primary visual clues in the movie is how the color gray dominates the majority of the sets (gray stone, gray metal, etc.). Red is a paradox of color: standing both for life, as in Evey's "prison garb" and lipstick she applies in the initial scene, and the constant "V" sigils (positive) and blood (negative).
Is injustice done in the name of justice acceptable? Can a lifetime of living within the rules compensate for a short period of ego-driven atrocities? What actions and ideals really separate us from those we despise/oppose? When does the slippery slope of "legislation in the name of safety" become a landslide under which we will all be buried alive?
Is it just me, or are there eerie parallels between this and Margaret Atwood's "Handmaid's Tale"? (Not the movie so much, but more the novel.)
Don't know if I'm sleeping much tonight. :-) Thanks for "listening."