Great movie, a must see, too bad it was a Wackowski ending

Rating: 8/10 (10 June 2006)

I started watching this movie thinking it's another Ultraviolet/Aeon Flux/Catwoman clone. The only thing that made me watch it was Hugo Weaving in the cast. I was blown away.
Let's start from the beginning. This is a movie about political extremism, about fear and the lack of it, about how easy people can be forced into submission and, of course, how they should force themselves out of. You can easily compare the movie with Matrix, this one being not a protest against everyday life, but one against live as it becomes slowly but surely.
OK, there's this guy, a true terrorist, killing people and blowing things up for a cause. Fortunately for this movie, it is a literate one and very well interpreted by Hugo Weaving. His purpose is to overthrow the oppressive government that rules the UK much like Hitler ruled Germany. It is ironic that the dictator is interpreted by John Hurt, this being the mother of all political full circles. He is helped by the first reluctant Natalie Portman. Stephen Rea has the role of the good cop trying to uncover the story beneath it all, much like in Citizen X.
Overall there are good ideas in the movie, a true plot, as opposed to the dreadful idiocies that I mentioned at the beginning, good acting and, of course, a happy ending. Who can really defeat Smith?
The only bad thing about this movie is the theatrics. I'm OK with the visuals, since the movie is based on a graphic novel (that's what they call comics in the UK, apparently), but I really despise knife jugglery before throwing the damn thing and over talking. It is hard to connect with the main character, since he is acting like a classic villain: Black mantle, mask, talking all the time with a British/Aussie accent. Anyway, like in Matrix, the ending is grandiose, with fireworks and the whole Brisith parliament building exploding from a single subway wagon full of explosives. But then again, the word parliament comes from French and it means the place of talks. And I really didn't like the talking too much. Hmmm :)