Politically inane, and a bit too much to swallow

Rating: 4/10 (1 March 2008)

This film really pulls out all the stops in trying to reflect upon the hypocrisy of Bush era politics in the war on terror and maltreatment of same-sex couples in western culture. That's all fine and good, but to make the protagonists likewise hypocrites by having them "even things up" through murder, demolition, rendition and general anarchy and selling it as empowerment of the masses is inane. It cancels out any validity of the argument. Why do we respect Martin Luther King as opposed to people like the Black Panthers? What have the masses learned from V but to behave just as the oppressors have. They do "overcome their fear" (which is an important message) but just as Evey had through her own "rendition" - you have to ask yourself 'at what price?' The last scene, in this sense, does not equate to a peaceful overtaking of the government - the masses simply show their support for another flavor of terrorist and enjoy the power vacuum his assassinations (although arguably justifiable) have created. V does realize that he is a "monster", but such a revelation coming from an individual, who has calmly declared his willingness to kill earlier, simply comes across as less of a realization and more of a simple letting go of that monster because the deed was done.
The politics of this film are for this reason ineffective. We should feel empowered that we can overcome tyranny, yes, but not by becoming terrorists ourselves. It's a dangerous message. I fear not every movie fan out there realizes the hypocrisy of the characters V and Evey and that this is the really interesting part of the story. Peaceful revolutionaries are the ones who embody pure "ideas" - not like V who realizes his ideas and aspirations through hate (what was the lesson Skywalker had to learn?). The same justification Jason Bourne or Rambo has to wreak havoc on government employees obviously flies here as well - if the "man" is the one who created you, you've got a right to break him down, like he broke you down.
Apart from the politics, the plot really put a strain on my suspension of disbelief. Albeit a film based on a graphic novel, it was hard to understand how some rouge could afford to finance the costumes and such he sent to (random?) inhabitants of London. I could have been content with disfigurement and even super-strength as a result of the experiments, but somehow too many questions were left at the end of the film. Maybe he had a blog (a vlog?) and a mailing list, who knows.
As for character development, Natalie Portman really is the saving grace of this film. It is easy to get attached to the likable portrayal of a working girl caught up in social injustice. As for Weaving, there's an obvious hurdle to overcome in that he has become this jaded gentleman - some kind of philosophical street preaching version of Jason Bourne meets Bruce Wayne. It's hard to relate to that. Some kind of Bravehart-style development would have given us something more to hold onto than the enigma that is V. Even Rambo was at some point just John Rambo - if even for a short time. We never saw who he was before, just kind of how this monster was "manufactured".
The accent problems by Portman mentioned by some didn't really bother me that much in light of my other difficulties swallowing this thing whole.
I thought that for such a dark film, the color pallet (so to say) was all in all a bit too cheery. A better choice would have been, say more like the first Batman film. Here we saw an intellectual "millionare socialite" (even less likable by the masses) who has it all, but the darker tones of Bruce Wanye's manor / layer make him nonetheless intriguing. This darker side of Wayne is really nearly totally accomplished by great art-direction and photography work. V is like diet-coke Brue Wayne without cool wheels.
The attempt to show V as an intellectual in his underground layer, and as a softy for old movies, kind of threw me off a bit. The sword fighting with the suit of armor reminded me of that fat light-saber kid on youtube.
All in all, it kept my attention and Weaving really delivered at times complex lines without batting an eye. It just could have been a bit more potent in all respects. It's not bad for a rental, but for the price of a theater ticket, not up to snuff.