Worse than I'd feared.

Rating: 3/10 (11 March 2006)

Gone is the comic's oppressive atmosphere- the film's Britain doesn't even seem to have spy cameras, while the comic seems to choke you on all sides. Gone are the social interactions between the main government agents that show corruption on the inside. Gone is the rising narrative tension as V's attacks pace along with the story, building up over time. The central villain of the story, initially, seems less like an oppressive government and more like a super-powered Fox News. Gone is the vicious cabaret. Gone is any mention of anarchy. This is a Kinder, Gentler V, and he fights a Kinder, Gentler Totalitarian Britain.
I was honestly surprised that the movie even dealt with Evey's imprisonment the same way that the comic did, by the time it got there. I was prepared for it to totally ruin her character's most important moment and take the last bits of V with it.
Politically, the story and atmosphere are loaded down with unsubtle knocks at the current American administration. This is not to say that such a message shouldn't be expressed- but it's not supposed to be "V for Vendetta"'s message. Here was a chance for a film to go after what should be the real target: A social system that would allow such poor representation and leadership in the first place. I just wonder why the filmmakers wanted to use ten-dollar cuss words all the way up to an R rating without bothering to give being actually subversive a try, given their source material. "Ideas are bulletproof," to be sure, but where are they?
Good acting and costuming, but otherwise a pretty sloppy film, and entirely unlike the original comic.