I couldn't stand this amazing movie.

Rating: 9/10 (17 March 2006)

I hated it and thought is was the best damn movie I've seen in a while at the same time. Let me explain. You see, the movie was very well done. The acting was great, the story was intriguing, the characters were well developed, and the overall theme of the movie rang true to the book. However, they took far too many liberties. Far more than were necessary. The rest of my review will be in spoiler tags. While the overall plot was the same, the difference was in the details. Evey was not a prostitute at the beginning. Not a big deal, and that part didn't bother me. However, V did not take Evey to the shadow gallery after their first meeting. He let her go, and she returned to her job at the BNC, which they added. Then, they had the V taking over the news station seen much earlier than in the comic. That bothered me a bit, but what bothered me the most was how the handled the scene. They butchered V's speech. Gone was the theatricality of him playing the part of God, having a meeting with humanity in his office to tell humanity that they were to be fired from the corporation that is life do to the political and social disasters over the course of human history. The speech in it's place, while very well written, was still quite inferior. And unnecessary. The original speech was perfect the way it was, and there was no reason to alter it that I can see. Many other changes were made as well. Rose, the wife of the fingerman V killed who V manipulated into becoming the Chancelor's assassin, was gone. I personally found the way the Chancelor was killed in the comic to be far better than the way he was killed in the movie. The also completely omitted the bits told from the Chancelor's perspective. While not a necessary piece of the story, they gave a good deal of insight into the psychology of a fascist dictator and the inherent madness of one. If it had remained, it would have given an extra layer of depth to the film and would have made the Chancelor more than a two dimensional villain. The fight scene at the end of the film, while very well done, was not in the comic and was quite unnecessary. V was killed by Finch in the comic book, and while the scene was not as exiting, it was just as deep and emotionally gripping, if not more so. Also, they severely cut short Finch's visit to Larkhill. In the comic, Finch went there and took some LSD, to try to understand V's obviously warped psyche. What followed was a rather bad trip on Finch's part that gave some insight into the mind of a person who's in fear of his government, and what they'll do to survive, even if that involves completely ignoring their personal moral code. In the movie, however, the trip was completely omitted. They also changed the reason that England went fascist. Instead of a result of the chaos that ensued due to a war between the world's super powers, it was changed to a conspiracy by the part itself to create chaos. Most of the changes, to me, seemed completely unnecessary, and I wonder why they chose to do them in the first place. The part that they kept completely the same (with the exceptions of one or two lines) was the scene where Evey was in the jail cell, reading the letter from the woman in room four. That was one of my favorite parts of the book, so I was glad to see they kept it. All in all, it was a great film. However, if they had been closer to the book, it would have been extraordinary.