Visually stunning, very silly movie

Rating: 2/10 (10 April 2006)

In the near future, V is a terrorist in the eyes of a totalitarian regime in Great Britan. The movie begins on the night when V, on his way to blow up a UK landmark, meets Evey, (EV, get it?) Natalie Portman in a desperate situation. She's on the verge of being raped when V steps in to save her. Afterward, he brings her along to witness the orchestrated destruction of a UK landmark.
From there the move quickly degenerates into a series of admittedly gorgeous set pieces separated by plot holes and gaps in credibility.
The movie's biggest problem is that V is for inVincible. He can break into and escape from the most heavily guarded government buildings with ease. Encountering little resistance, he dispatches his enemies. There's little suspense when the hero can do anything and go anywhere and is never in serious danger.
The movie starts out with a bang but then grinds to a halt with a boring exposition on V's backstory (which is easily guessed at and straight out of comic book clichÃ© heaven).
The middle section of the movie is a laborious detective story inter spliced with V and Evey's relationship. The movie touches on big ideas but the audience is asked to make some huge leaps (even for a comic book movie) to believe the action in the story.
In an imagined series of scenes that encapsulate many of the movie's problems, Evey learns the story of a female victim of the regime. Though its heart is in the right place, the sequence is out of place and downright laughable.
There are good comic book hero movies out there. Don't bother with this one.