Refreshing reversal to the current tradition of wasting film

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2006)

Loved this movie. I RARELY go to a theater anymore but I made an exception for V. The characters were well defined and, wonder of wonders, one could actually identify with them. So easy to do when real humanity is portrayed instead of the abstractions that dominate too many movies. And to hear on the screen a vocabulary such as V's without any of it being watered down for the masses, well, I could hardly contain my joy. My teenage sons (of a generation cursed with video games) really liked the movie and were able to follow the plot. I was pleased.
My only gripe is that the use of homosexuality as the prime examples of persecuted freedom represented a complete loss of the sense of proportion that the film had in other respects. In a world such as that represented in V for Vendetta homosexuality would NOT be the primary target. This was the equivalent of listening to a tape and finding several crucial parts erased by some previous cavalier listener. That said, the main import of the film and the characterizations chosen to carry it were quite refreshing in comparison to the usual sex and violence visual cauterizations of frontal lobes everywhere.