V for Vendetta (V for Vendetta (DVD))

Member Name: lady_natalie

Product:	V for Vendetta (DVD)
Date:	28/09/09 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great story, setting, great mix of action with thriller

Disadvantages: natalie portmans rubbish accent!

V for Vendetta is a science fiction thriller and was released in 2005. It is based on the comic book of the same name which is by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

Natalie Portman stars as Evey, a young woman living in the not too distant 2034, in an England which is under a dictatorship and everyone must live by the rules given to them. Evey works at a TV station, and one night leaves her house past the 11 o'clock curfew, where she is confronted by members of Britain's brutal and quite unjust police force. As they explain to her that she can work her way out of the punishment she should get for being out late she is saved by 'V', a man in a mask and cape who easily immobilises the two men. He takes her to watch his planned destruction of the Old Bailey, which happens on November 5th, Guy Fawkes night. The explosions and fire works which everyone saw that night are shown on the news as a planned explosion by the government. V smuggles his way into the TV station and takes a small group of personnel hostage, so that he can show a tape he has made to the world, telling them that the demolition was his doing, and he would be blowing up the houses of parliament at the same time next year, and everyone was free to join him there. On leaving the TV buildings he is almost apprehended, but for the help of Evey. However, this leaves him with little option but to take Evey home with him, somewhere underneath London, where she cant leave. Her life becomes totally different after she has met V, although she tries to escape from his underground home she is soon met by government members and is tortured for information about V, where he lives, and about his past. In the meantime Inspector Finch is also trying to find out about V and his past, who he once was, and the reasons for his anarchist behaviour.

I wasn't sure what i was going to think of this film, so it took me a while to get round to watching it. But to start with i do kind of tend to like films based on comics/graphic novels, so i was hopeful. And i wasn't disappointed. In my opinion this is a really great film, one of my favorites.

The Britain where this film is set is under a kind of George Orwell-ish regime. Well, to me it kind of feels like the kind of place that Orwell was getting at. People are told what to do and think, they are given curfews for their own safety and the power of the church is absolute. It is also somewhat some what like Nazi Germany, people are told to think of the welfare of the state and are told that everything is being done for their own good, which religions other than Christianity become illegal and horrific scientific experiments are carried out on humans and something very much like a concentration camp. It certainly doesn't take very much for the viewer to believe in the world that has been created.

I think what really make this film so good are the characters, main and smaller roles included, and there are also little bits and pieces which fit into the plot and really make you feel what the film is trying to say. Hugo Weaving is truly great as V, his voice speaks miles, even more so as you can never see his face. His past is revealed little by little, and you become drawn in by him, and what he will tell you of what Britain has done to him. Stephen Fry also has a great role, although he doesn't appear very much. He is the epitome of what Britain is against in the near future, he's gay and he collectes religious memorabilia, that is of religious other than Christianity, something which is punishable by whatever the church and government see fit.

My only problem with this film is the role of Evey, played by Natalie Portman. She begins and ends this films, and what happens comes down to her. And I just think her acting is quite awful. Her attempts at an English accent are terrible, this can be overlooked, and you do, because the film is good enough, but she is a main character, and as she talks throughout the whole film it is hard to totally forget about it. Also, a main point in the film is the relationship between herself and V. Which for Eveys point of view, i think just doesn't seem completely real. I think a lot of people will think differently about this, and she is good in parts, for example when she's being tortured. But having a very strong performance by the lead female role could of, i think, made this film even better than it is.

So, apart from one or two small points that i can easily over look, i love this film. It's not the type that i can watch over and over again, but if i watch it every once in a while it doesn't fail to amaze me.

Summary: great film