V For Victory

Rating: 7/10 (14 March 2006)

The Wachowski Brothers and their Matrix trilogy assistant director James McTeigue brings out a treat to the audience with V For Vendetta, after their previous disappointment The Matrix Revolutions.
In the British-German production, they have marvelously used British actress Natalie Portman as Evey, a British TV Station crew as the sidekick of V, a victim of a failed experiment who was arrested for being a guerrilla terrorist with the skill of defense and deception, who later becomes the hero of V For Vendetta, leading the people to overthrow the tyranny and autocratic government. Australian actor Hugo Weaving takes the leading role of V, where his true look was never revealed in the film.
It is set in the futuristic world, where England is ruled under autocratic power of the chancellor, Adam Sutler. No one in England had full freedom in their country, where curfews are imposed in the country with no mercy if one is caught on the streets during the curfew hours without a very good reason. Evey is one of the victims, who was saved by V.
V took control of the TV Station Evey works in, and encourages the people to stand up and fight against their tyranny, Nazi-liked government for their freedom. V achieved his objectives through terrorism acts, and took revenge on the group of people who used him in an experiment which kills thousands of non-British in the experiment. As Evey slowly gets to know the story of V, she must also overcome her fear, where her parents died under the rules of the government for sharing the same idea as V.
James McTeigue makes his directorial debut in V For Vendetta, where it amaze the audience with scenes on how V influence the people with his ideas and acts. If you are expecting the scene where thousands of people wear the mask that signify V in the trailer and the teaser poster, McTeigue do it for you, thanks to the experience he had when working in Matrix Revolutions. Together with The Wachowski Brothers and Joel Silver, who is also the producer of Matrix Trilogy, the tense and excitement from Matrix Trilogy has been brought into V For Vendetta.
After seeing him playing the notorious Agent Smith in Matrix Trilogy, Hugo Weaving is casted as V, where we do not get to see his face in the film. We, as the audience of the film, was questioning ourselves: did he do the dubbing for his role, since he has to wear a mask throughout the whole film? It is a bit disappointing that we do not get to see the look of V under the mask.
Being a British herself, Natalie Portman brings out the fear, agony and pain she suffers under the tyranny rule of the government. Not much of a breakthrough, but the scene where her hair was shaved when she was captured is definitely worth a watch.
The film seems to be targeting against the rule of the Nazi power under the lead of the infamous dictator Adolf Hitler. The rule of Nazi power has been brought forward to the modern day England, where the advancement of society seems to have failed stopping the ideas of Nazism in the modern world, where Nazism has been condemned around the world. It is rather unique, or should i say, that terrorism is the remedy to Nazism. I am not influencing or encouraging terrorism attacks to achieve ones objective, but V For Vendetta presents to us how terrorism acts could destroy a rule of terror, but at the same time, questioning ourselves, do we want to live in a world of terror where no security exists among everybody? It is sad that V For Vendetta suffer cuts under the censorship in several countries for the idea of using terrorism to overthrow a tyranny government.
V now marks Victory for the cast and crews to out stand itself above other boring commerical flicks.