Film rendered brilliant by our times

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2007)

I put off watching this because I was tired of the masked hero comic genre and wasn't sure if this was another action flick with lots of CGI and a thin plot. But do I regret it! Sure, the weaknesses I feared were there - too much of The Phantom of the Opera, a number of Big Brother clichés and Natalie Portman was so kosher it hurts - but this film is saved by virtue of its timing. The film also considerably at some junctures even though the action was well- choreographed and worthy of the makers of The Matrix. It is long, the narrative familiar but engrossing enough. Before 2000, I would have scoffed at the probability of such a plot premise which would have seemed far-fetched and over the top. Watching it in this day and age, I get chills and goosebumps not because the film was that good but because the times we're in are that bad. Before 2000, the self-evident truths in the film would have made it trite, today, they are strangely poignant. All the references to atrocities tolerated are so ordinary to us at this moment in time, it is almost psychotically hilarious. It is so unsettling to sit through this that towards the end, one actually finds great relief that the directors did not deny us a hopeful trajectory and one is happy to embrace the "Hollywood" ending because the possibility of us fighting back instead of sinking into greater paranoia and apathy against neo-fascism in our lifetime is to put it optimistically, bleak. How many truly care about the erosion of civil liberties, detention without trial or torture camps? Well, if you've got nothing to hide, what are you afraid of? Nuke Iran and potentially killing millions? Shrug. In that, this is highly recommended as a great escapist film.