A writer uses lies to tell the truth. Politicians use them to bury it.

Rating: 9/10 (15 March 2006)

"A writer uses lies to tell the truth while a politician uses them to cover it up." "A man after my own heart", then replies Codename V after Natalie Portman tells her of a principle that her father once revealed...My friend told me that Mr. Weaving was a replacement for a previous actor who did not find it good for his ability as the leading man to hide his face all through-out, well maybe Weaving even replaced someone who refused to take second-billing! But this movie was a surprise. Portman does very well, as she always does except for George Lucas's moves (I love the prequels but that man is NOT an actor's director), Portman plays a British character who has witnessed violence as a child and develops a rapport with Codename V.
The movie explores a lot of socio, econo, and geopolitical themes all done in comic-book flavor as what is expected from a movie scribed by the Wachowskis. Even first time helmer McTeigue hints at using the brother's style in slo-mo violence, which surprisingly works well in here as it is something NOT to my taste all the time. I hated slo-mo in John Woo's movies and in The 3rd Matrix film, I thought it became just too overwrought styling. The movie opens with action scenes that expose the grace and adeptness of Codename V as a vigilante? Or antihero? Whatever. And there is a surprise in the middle that draws denouement to the subplot of Evey (Portman) being captured, and tortured and being basically left for dead.
John Hurt does an excellent job as the movie's antagonist, he displays an imposing persona, arrogant and full of conviction - whom we would then witness seeing a reversal in character in the end by the way. The film flash backs the character's past, from the trauma Evey has witnessed from childhood, to the incident that made Codename V who he was, thus revealing the driving force of the movie's title character. In one of the scenes preceding a flashback, we see the slyness of his methods of assassination when he speaks to a coroner who has bore witness to V's wrathful rebirth. The movie has a recurring theme of fate versus coincidence and pays off what is foreshadowed in the beginning. Listen to V's speech as he invades television and see the symbolic chain reaction of collapsing dominoes, a visual metaphor that precedes the film's climax. There is denouement between V and Evey, where Evey even takes on totally the ideals that Codename V has upheld. A symbol is nothing without the people.
This is a very good piece of cinema, worth watching if you have the time and does have gravitas in it. The 3rd film of the Wachowski's trilogy may NOT have clicked because it was an attempt at making something intellectual in a genre for dumbs. VENDETTA is of that same genre, and like Revolutions, efforts of the scribes pay off and they do well in the fact that this movie even surpasses anything good or redeeming that 3rd film of the Matrix trilogy had. Vendetta is a better and more exciting watch. And very impressive for first time captain of the boat, James McTeigue who has worked alongside the brothers in their movies as a second-unit man.
Grade B+