Rating: 4.0/5.0
V For Vendetta is an action-packed film about A shadowy freedom fighter known as “V” who fights against his terrorist, totalitarian society. Upon rescuing a girl from the secret police, he also finds his best chance at having an ally.
The movie was written by Andy and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), so I watched this movie with high expectations. I didn’t know much about the director, and later found out James McTeigue hadn’t full-out directed anything before V For Vendetta (Besides being a Second Unit/Assistant Director). I was quite surprised to hear that. He did a fantastic job with the film, and the actors were just as great. Hugo Weaving and Natalie Portman especially, being the two main characters of the film. Hugo needed to have a lot of emotion shown in his voice and actions since you could not see his facial expression, and he did a great job with that.
This film was also an adaptation of the Alan Moore book that he made in 1982. I haven’t read the book, but I plan to soon. The beginning of the movie really brings you in and wanting to see more due to the fact that within the first 10 minutes, there is a fight. I think a beginning full of action is a great way to start, well, anything, really. A book, a movie, a television show, etcetera. This is why Romeo and Juliet is one of my favourite Shakespearian plays; it begins with a fight between a Montague and a Capulet, which brings the viewer in wanting to know more (For example, Romeo and Juliet):Why are they fighting? Who are these men? What is this importance to the rest of the play? I think that was great on the director and writer’s part.
Throughout parts of the movie, the government is trying to find V and Evey, and there are scenes from both V and Evey’s perspective. I think this is a key element to a film. If a filmmaker just stays on one straight path through a movie, it can become either predictable and/or rather unexciting. This is a important because one of the most important things is keeping an audience when writing/directing a movie. If you lose them, you get bad reviews. If you get bad reviews, that’s just not a good sign for a successful film headed your way, and I’d hope nobody wants that.
One thing about the movie I disliked was, of course, like with most films, there were some small slow parts, but that’s typical. It’s not a perfect film, but there really isn’t one “perfect” film. But that is just my opinion, it depends on what your definition of “perfect” is, and how you see it. Another thing I didn’t like about this movie was the fact that this terrorist known as V is trying to make England a better place. If that did happen, I think more people would follow him in his act of terrorism and break out in riots, but coincidentally, they all follow the dictatorship like nothing is bothering them (but clearly, you could see that it is). So the citizens are really on the government’s side of they’re all against V, which I don’t think would be very realistic if this were an actual situation. But, looking at it in a different perspective, that is really not much of a problem at all because comic books—and movies based off of them— aren’t always supposed to be realistic, they’re really to tell the story of a fantasy.
In the whole of the movie, I see a very strong message trying to get through. Now I don’t know if this was stressed in the book as much as it was in the movie, but I have recognized it in many other movies as well. From V’s perspective, he is trying to be a hero and make his country a better place by threatening the government and killing off people. This is just his personal thought process, everyone thinks different, but he thinks violence is the way to help. As he even said in the movie, “Violence can be used for good; Justice.” An outsider would see V as an enemy and that is why everyone acts defensive, but in actuality, he’s just trying to help. He doesn’t just want to help his country, he also wishes to help Evey live without fear.
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