A good American style film based on an even better story

Rating: 9/10 (28 March 2006)

The positive: An action movie that has a story, smart dialogue and a compelling characters. They kept the poetry of V's speech. The story of Valerie is the soul, the true idea of the v of vendetta story. The fact that V does in fact die and that chaos (the destruction of Parliment) still happens. In a traditional film the cop would have published the doctor's diary and the bad guys would have been brought down in public. The reality is that sometimes justice is brutal and that the bad guys are often brought down only at the expense of innocent lives.
natalie portman is insanely appealing and attractive. Her transformation was believable.
The Negative The romance story between V and Evey was totally wrong. V is not a man, he is an idea. As a man he is focused on one thing, personal anarchy. The whole romance is unbelievable and totally against the theme of the story.
The bad guys were too bad, there was no moral gray which is more true of true believers. Having the woman of course be the only one with regret is such an American movie convention.
While it worked to set it in the current context of "terrorism" as excuse to take away civil liberties the original story was about anarchism not about liberal politics vs conservative politics.