Stop telling me what to think

Rating: 7/10 (24 September 2006)

Since I've heard a lot of people raving about this movie and I missed it, I decided to rent it in the local videostore. I did not like it as much as I expected, and I guess it's for the very same reason why I liked the first part of the Matrix, but got disenchanted with it from part two on.
It's not easy to explain why. Certainly, it's hardly the stunning visuals or the rather interesting and politically relevant plot I have a problem with. I think it's rather the over-the-top moralizing and the sometimes rather unrealistic story.
About the realism: of course I know that fiction is all about "the suspension of disbelief", but that's exactly what I mean. Since the story is so relevant to our present global political climate, the lack of realism of V, the main protagonist, hurts the movie more than it does any good. Also, we hardly see him in the preparations of all his spectacular attacks and stunts. Take for example the delivery of all those thousands of Guy Fawkes-suits around the country at the end of the movie: if we are really to believe that this is a Big Brother-like, Orwellian totalitarian state, how is he able to pull something like that off? The makers of the movie wisely leave that question unanswered, and it's easy to see why.
About the moralizing: this is something that disturbed me as well. Especially the scene at the end, where thousands of people take off their masks at the same time, accompanied by Natalie Portman's explanation about how "V" is actually "everybody" (or was it "all of us"? I don't remember it literally). It reminded me of the second Matrix movie, where I got turned off because of the long philosophical "explanation" at a certain moment. I don't like to be told by the makers of a movie how I should interpret a movie philosophically. I like to interpret it myself. This seems to be a typical trait of the Wachowski brothers: they want to convey a clear philosophical or political message. Alright with me, but I don't like it when it gets too explicit and nothing is left to my own imagination.
I decided that 6 would be a little too low perhaps, so I give the movie a 7. It's definitely not a movie you should steer away from. Technically speaking, it's perfect. It's just that I have some other problems with it. It may also be a matter of taste.