I have seen this film

Rating: 2/10 (23 November 2006)

I read about the comic a long time before I saw the film, and I was intrigued about how it would be handled on celluloid. England is run by a totalitarian regime some time in the future, the leader of the regime is played by John Hurt, who, fittingly played the role of Winston Smith in Michael Radford's version of 1984. The author of the graphic novels the film is based on apparently walked out of the premiere of the movie, and I can see why. The director of V for Vendetta obviously has a great love of the comic, because he does try to deal with the issues that are raised in the comic, but his ineptness as a director lets the comic down, badly. Among the issues, are how fear (caused by terrorism) can allow the public to be manipulated by politicians who then push through draconian laws which they claim to be for the good of the people but are actually covering darker ulterior motives. The editing is cringingly bad, it really makes you wonder if there was a director behind the production at all, the leads (Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving) rush their way through a script that clunks and grinds along for most of the movie. The 'relationship' between Portman's and Weaving's characters is totally implausible because there is not even a hint of a gradual development of Portman's trust in 'V', who is, after all quite a dubious character given that he wears a mask the whole time. That you're expected to believe in The dodgy London English accents (I should know, since I am a born and bred Londoner) add's to the farcical catalogue of other things that make this a bad film. I actually got quite angry about this one, because the subject matter is topical and raises a lot of questions, but it could have been handled so much better by a more accomplished director.