Really surprised at how much I liked this, why did it take me so long to watch it?

Rating: 8/10 (28 August 2010)

V for Vendetta is set in a future Britian where the country is now under the strict dictatorship of High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt), the date is November the 5th as TV production assistant Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) breaks a late night curfew & is attacked by two of Sutler's secret police force the Fingermen but is saved by a man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask who calls himself V (Hugo Weaving). V takes Evey to witness the blowing up of the Old Bailey for which he is responsible, the following day at the British Television Network studios V breaks in & broadcasts a message to Britian claiming he is a modern day freedom fighter who has taken the guise of Guy Fawkes & like Fawkes will try to bring the oppressive Government down. Sutler's security forces try to find V while he sets out on a personal revenge mission...
This American, British & German co-production was the directorial debut of James McTeigue & I must admit that I am amazed that V for Vendetta is in the IMDb user voted Top 250 films (well within the top 200 as well) but at the same time pleasantly surprised because I thought V for Vendetta was a terrific film that has so much going for it. Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore (who has said he didn't like the film) & David Lloyd (who has said he did like the film) I didn't expect such a great film, while the original graphic novel was about V on a quest to create anarchy rather than freedom from an oppressive Government I think the film works extremely well & a lot f it seemed very relevant & topical. Lets be honest, V for Vendetta has a dig at the likes of George Bush & Tony Blair as it presents Britian in the near future as a society run by a dictator & a corrupt Government who have twisted the war on terrorism, the need for security & the fears ordinary people have to take away people civil liberties & freedom just like we are heading towards right now if truth be told. I could also relate to the way Sutler uses & manipulates the media, it's all quite close to home & familiar actually. At over two hours I was never bored by a largely talky film, it held my interest from stat to finish with some great writing, some touching writing, some humorous writing, some exciting writing & some satirical writing. The character's are all strong & there's one great twist about half way through I didn't see coming that was genuine surprise that at first seemed a bit odd but then after thinking about it seemed totally logical.
Based on a comic book there's a great visual style to the film, from the cool fighting & action scenes to some surprisingly touching scenes sensitively shot. I loved the idea of using Guy Fawkes, I am not sure if he is that well known outside of the UK but here the 5th of November is celebrated every year & Fawkes story is know to all. The idea of using the morals & image of Fawkes & the ideas behind the image is a great one that works perfectly (but I guess you would have to know of Fawkes for it to). The special effects are impressive with a cool shot of the House of Parliment being blown up at the end. There is some blood & violence but overall there's more talk although when the action does arrive it's cool. I also loved the dominoes bit, sure it's pointless but it looks great & since it took over 200 hours to set up in reality a lot of time went into creating it.
With a supposed budget of about $54,000,000 this wasn't as big budgeted as some Hollywood films although it does look great & is surely one of the most political films released during the decade, the parallels between the future society seen in V for Vendetta & the the way our own is heading is there for all to see & the similarity between Sutler & certain other well known leaders is also striking. The acting is great from all expect Portman who is a bit flat although tremendous credit goes to Hugo Weaving who manages to put in a great performance & give V real depth despite being hidden behind a mask the entire film.
V for Vendetta is a marvellous film, both as an action fantasy with lush visuals & as an extreme look at where society is heading, the ambiguity surrounding the character of V helps too as a sort of masked hero who simply just stands for ideas & values. A new personal favourite of mine, I highly recommend it.