A good movie, but with dangerous ideas.

Rating: 7/10 (25 August 2015)

This film focuses on the mysterious figure V, a masked without name or identity that stands against the English government. Everything takes place in a dystopian future, where parliamentary democracy gave way to a totalitarian one-party government, based on a strongly nationalist, repressive and ultra-conservative ideology. Inspired by a catholic conspiracy of the seventeenth century (the Gunpowder Plot), V declares himself a defender of democracy, starts a terror campaign against the government and incites the people to revolt against dictatorship. But, what no one knows is that V is driven by a desire of vengeance linked to his mysterious past. By his side is Evey Hammond, a young woman who is saved by V and eventually become close to him.
The film is an adaptation of a comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd in the eighties. It was directed by James McTeigue, who also directed the "Matrix" trilogy and that seems to have a particular taste for Orwellian dystopias. The cast is headed by Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portmann in the roles of V and Evey, having been at a great level and toasted the audience with excellent performances. Very interesting are also some dialogs and talks, in particular the way that V introduces himself before Evey in the beginning of the film, where almost every word he says begin with the letter V. The character was able to transcend their individuality and become a symbol of struggle, with a gentle touch of anarchism. Such a strong symbol that, even today, we see masks similar to those used in this film in many protests around the world.
The only negative note: this film does, although perhaps without that intention, a "defense" that the ends justify the means, and no matter the destruction of public buildings, works of art and historical monuments when we are looking, through this gesture, to defend an idea or cause that we thought to be important. However, this is terrorism, and the people who does it are that fanatics that we used to condemn in other movies and in real life, which makes this idea too dangerous to be "supported" by films like this.