It's the fear, man!

Rating: 4/10 (23 March 2006)

The moment I physically shook my head during this movie came when V (and this is a spoiler) revealed that he had tricked the girl into thinking she was going to be executed. Gotcha! It was only a test. And now you can live without fear. Awesome, thanks man. As far as I understood it, that kind of mental torture usually turned people into haunted shells of their former selves. But who knows, maybe what we all need is mock execution therapy...
Other than that, I actually liked the pace and the visual experience. I also liked that the movie caricatured the use of anti-terrorist rhetoric to manipulate the public -- an important enough point these days that I actually didn't mind having it shoved down my throat in this case. I just wonder if there aren't some teenagers (or equivalents) out there who might think that the Wachowski Brothers are commanding them to blow up the White House.
All in all, I think the Wachowskis, like M Night Shyamalan, impress w/ certain trademark virtues, but ultimately disappoint by taking themselves too seriously and being transparently shallow when they appear to think they are waxing deep -- taking us to different kinds of depths than they intend.