One of the most thoughtful and chilling graphic novel movies I've seen!

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2006)

Movies derived from comics and graphic novels have just been getting better and better with each movie that comes out! Thinking back to the horrible movies such as "Fantastic Four", "Batman and Robin", or even "Daredevil", I sure am glad that we have movies like "Batman Begins", "Xmen" (and "X2"), "Sin City", and now "V for Vendetta" to balance things out! Out of all the good comic movies, the topic that "V for Vendetta" explores is the most profound, deep, and frightening. "Xmen" comes close with its topics, but "V for Vendetta" brings it up a notch and shows you a world where everything goes wrong and Hitler like maniacs have used fear to create a totalitarian state. The movie explores everything from fear-based politics to terrorism to propaganda to government conspiracy to vigilantes to the true meaning of patriotism to love to revenge to prejudice and racism, all in a very coherent story line and all portrayed very well.
This is a movie that gets everything right, so let's briefly go through each element.
Acting: Natalie Portman is superb in this movie, transforming from a innocent and weak victim in the beginning to a hardened and fearless rebel in the end. The changes are subtle yet powerful to behold, and only someone with her acting chops can pull it off. Even though Hugo Weaving (and the actor who played the part before whose name I don't remember), who plays "V", is behind the mask for the entire movie, he exudes the essence and personality of "V" perfectly with every head tilt, hand gesture, or body movement. People have said that the most difficult type of acting is one where you cannot use any part of your face, and Hugo did a great job with it.
Cinematography/Directing: The mood is dark, and England is under a totalitarian state. Each and every scene in the movie reminds us of this and the atmosphere is consistent throughout. Clips of "fear" based news stories are peppered throughout the movie to relay to the audience how the people in Britain lived during those times. The story is very plausible, considering what is going on with our world today (and if you watched "Why We Fight", it's even more frighteningly possible!), and all the humor, darkness, tragedy, frustration, hope and hopelessness is weaved expertly into the tapestry that is this movie.
Action: While this movie has a lot of dramatic moments, the action is elegantly captured by the fight scenes involving the character "V". He has super-human strength and reflexes, and the choreography takes what we saw in "The Matrix" up even a notch, adding beauty and artistry into the moves. I believe action fans would be quite impressed by those scenes in the movie.
Finally, those of you who read my reviews know that I don't give out 10's to movies that easily, but after thinking about the movie, seeing what it represents, what it stands for, and how all the technical elements of film-making is put together, I must give this movie a 10 in my book, as it is every bit as fun, exciting, powerful, and thoughtful as "Batman Begins" (one of my top movies of 2005), if not more. I only hope this trend continues with "X3", coming out this May with another powerful social message, and we shall see if any other movies in the year can top this first big movie of 2006!