Review of V for Vendetta (2006) by Victor T — 02 Aug 2015

When it comes to comic books or graphics novels there are few giants that had transcend the industry and revitalize it, and what perfect example of said giants that Alan Moore, the man behind the best graphic novel of all time "Watchmen" and some other impressive and famous works, including the 1984 like novel "V for Vendetta" which was adapted to the silver screen in a time where its story was appropriate.

In 2030, the UK is ruled by totalitarianism. A corrupt fascism Parliament controlled by a dictator named Adam Sutler. One night a masked vigilante rises to inspire people to take this regime out.

Before I start this review I want to clarify that I won't get into the political agenda of this film. When it comes to comic books, my knowledge is almost nothing as I have only read a handful of them but I have read some of Moore´s work ("Watchmen", "V for Vendetta", "The Killing Joke", "Marvelman", "The League of Extraordinarily Gentleman" and "From Hell") and I remember loving this adaptation back when it came out, but having revisit it I have to say that it isn't the masterpiece I thought it was. "V for Vendetta" counts with solid acting with the best being Hugo Weaving given an impressive performance that relies completely in his body movement and voice acting, the world presented is dense and well crafted, the story -which is a drastic departure of Moore´s novel- is a soft version of Orwell´s "1984" with Fincher´s "Fight Club", the action sequences are a recreation of what was made in "The Matrix" franchise, storytelling that knows how to handle such level of backstory, some interesting characters that offer something to the overall thought provoking experience, while the themes are executed in a heavy handed way they are effective mostly thanks to the visuals (that go from Third Reich to the Iraq War), it touches some pretty sensitive topics with an execution that will anger some people, the antihero of "V" is memorable and charismatic, it has one of the most powerful and emotional montage stories I´ve ever seen, and some beautiful poetic storytelling with its dialog and conclusion. With all that being said, "V for Vendetta" isn't as good as I remembered. Its social commentary is a little dated as the Wachowski´s script "updated" the story to fit to the issues of the first half of the 00´s, while it may be inspiring at times it is also so naïve and juvenile that it comes off as a fantasy film instead of a political thriller, Portman´s performance is bland, the characters are caricatures thus taking away any moral ambiguity, and it takes itself too seriously and just gets more and more convoluted with conspiracies as the film progresses.

"V for Vendetta" is a film that has some greatness in it but its naïve and dated script breaks the whole experience. It will definitely attract teenagers but adult and/or people with a defined political agenda will find it troublesome. Worth watching as it is one of the best comic book films out there.