A thought-provoking, if superficial, entertainment.

Rating: 3/10 (9 October 2006)

V for Vendetta is a fairly engaging entertainment which is hugely aided, in America, at least, by the questions it raises about civil liberties vs security. Hugo Weaving does a nice job of overcoming the mask with his voice and body language and a strong supporting cast of fine character actors outweigh a merely adequate performance by Natalie Portman. But the Brothers W let us down with a half-baked screenplay and the more you think about this movie the less good it is. Consider, in particular, V's ability to circumvent an enormous security infrastructure to assassinate top level officials in their homes at will, hijack a government train, acquire and distribute a half million Guy Fawkes masks, and stock his personal museum sanctuary with art treasures. How he does any of these things is seldom shown, and more often than not he simply tells us that he has done them. If you have never thought much about the political issues raised and this film causes you to do so, that's great. But it's far, far from a "work of towering genius." Marvelous explosion at the end, though.