Visually impressive, but surprisingly shallow

Rating: 7/10 (10 September 2006)

An alternate futuristic vision of England has the country being run by a ruthless totalitarian government who will stop at nothing to remain to in power. People live in fear and are remarkably passive as a result, save for one masked freedom fighter known as V who fights with cunning and cleverness to rally the people of England to end the dictatorship.
Visually this film is quite a stunner. No excessive computer effects, but nonetheless the sets and cinematography are first rate and do a great job and creating a dark world. Also there are many visual symbols as well as creative uses of words that start with 'V.' Added on top of solid acting and direction. For such a faceless performance, Hugo Weaving (who's behind a mask the whole time) plays very well at conveying the character V. However that's the movie version of V, the one in the source graphic novel is quite different.
The problem is the film's message and it is ridiculously shallow - "facism is bad." That is really it. For a such a lengthy and well produced film it is a real shame, though not much a surprise, that the attention was on the visual, but the metaphorical and philosophical are hardly attended to. There is a lot of dialog and room for for what could have been interesting thoughts of characters reflecting on their world, but it ends up being just routine. For instance when Finch is discussing with his partner the possibility of a government conspiracy they do nothing, but state the obvious - is it worth going against such a powerful government, are we afraid to, and so on. Nothing really that hasn't been done before in countless other stories.
Added to the fact that the film ends in an amazingly dull and ridiculously cliché big explosion. It makes sense as you watch the film, but that doesn't mean that it is interesting. How much more interesting would it be when the shadowy freedom fighter V would think of a way to topple the government by not using methods that it uses against it's own people? The film just ends up being almost a more mature version of the Star Wars story - eventually the good triumphs over the evil with a big bang. Star Wars had the Death Star and here we have several buildings in London. So it is good, but retreading on old ground with nothing new to present has never scored a film big points. 7/10
Rated R for violence