V for Vendetta gets a V out of X.

Rating: 2/10 (20 March 2006)

I must say that I am highly disappointed in the overall fair. I had high expectations for this movie, yet I feel let down. Far to many people are making an issue out of this movie's plot and it's shallow relationship with the current foreign policy situation the US finds itself in. A lot of people must have forgotten about examples of terrorism in places like Beirut, Isreal, Chile, Japan, etc. The problem with trying to force a moral parallel between this movie and with our present situation is that as history moves on, more knowledge shall come to light and our perspectives shall change, thus recasting this movie in a different light. For now, people just want a medium through which they can vex about the US's current national security and foreign policy failures, and a lot of movie critics and other pseudo-intellectuals are using this film as such.
In defense of the movie, the individual sum of parts were very nice. The cinematography just captured the mood and brooding essence of Alan Moore's story. The Wachowski Bros. scored big points for casting Natalie Portman, for if you read the comic you realize that Miss Portman cast strong resemblances to Dan Lloyd's Evey. Hugo Weaving really showed his acting chops. I always admired him in Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, The Matrix Trilogies and Lord of the Ring, but he really does act here. Due to the mask, Weaving could not cheat with facial expressions. Instead he is forced to create a vocabulary of physical mannerisms to add emphasis to his voice. (He really should earn an Oscar for any future projects.) And speaking of voices, V's voice is the real character of the film. Which is sad, because the producers and directors lost an opportunity to contrast the voice of fate against the voice of V.
The overall flow of the story were in some places too fast and in others too slow. V is a very enigmatic yet methodical man who never does anything without a reason. Sadly I never felt this at all. No, I think a good portion of the film wasted time trying to highlight some small element of V's humanity, which is wrong because V is a symbol, an ideal. He subordinates all elements of his humanity to the achievement of his ideal, causing friction with Evey and alienating him from her at times. Which brings up the point that the writers and directors did not place enough focus on the two leads relationship to the extent that we see the nuances and changes that their relationship goes through over the course of the film.
One of the primary themes of Alan Moore's story is simply transformation. The transformation from totalitarianism to individual self governance; from Ordnung to Verwirrung. Instead of detailing the reign of terror where the individual citizens rise up and plunge England into a state of disaster, the production team creates a sequence where all the citizens (dressed as V) conveniently encounter the army right about the time of V's death. (I can only say that this was for some ambiguous, artistic dramatic effect.) This is completely anathema to Evey's prison sequence in which V subjects her to torture; the ritual of this experience was designed to free her from her own inner prison of fear, transforming her from a girl frightened to live due to the temporal powers above her into a woman devoid of fear, who is daring enough to live as she pleases. This scene is finalized in a baptism/rebirthing in which Evey exposes herself to the elemental powers of nature, thus washing away the old girl and giving life to a woman willing to live. You see, it was Evey who was supposed to transform herself into the symbol of freedom for the new era. It was for her to transform herself in V and lead the new Britain in a new age. Thus when the writers wrote out Evey's role and replaced it with that scene of Vs, they essentially killed the significance of Eve's imprisonment and release.
Alan Moore should have consulted Frank Miller on how best to translate his comic into a movie. Sadly this is his second disappointment, the first being League of Extraordinary Gentleman. The only way this project could have worked out well was if it were made into a four hour, two-part HBO special.