V for Vendetta Review
by Steve Rhodes (Steve DOT Rhodes AT InternetReviews DOT com)March 14th, 2006
V FOR VENDETTA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2006 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): * 1/2
Flat and pretentious, V FOR VENDETTA plays like a comic book version of an al Qaeda recruiting video. Remember the recent and tragic terrorist bombings of the London underground? Well, this movie's most dramatic moment comes from a massive subway bombing that completely obliterates the British Parliament. It is set to stirring and celebratory music and is supposed to be a gloriously wonderful event.
But, you say, the movie is set in the future in which Britain has been taken over by a 1984-like Big Brother government with the number one fascist played by a shrill and shriveled John Hurt as the government's all powerful talking head. His face appears regularly on 100-foot high video screens. Just so there is little doubt who the movie is really about, the writers, THE MATRIX's Wachowski brothers, have several references, some subtle, some not, to the Bush administration's war against terrorists. One poster, for example, links the American government's "Coalition of the Willing" to the Nazis. The story keeps referring to the "former United States" and talks about civil war in the U.S.
Still, even this could all be forgiven if the movie didn't flag so often. Long ponderous sections are added where some life and a little action would have been much appreciated. Like MUNICH and SYRIANA, the self-important V FOR VENDETTA is more interested in scoring political points than in entertaining us.
The central character is named "V," a man with a metal mask who looks like Guy Fawkes. He is a superhero who slices people up in the goriest ways possible with his six shiny knives. He was wronged long ago at a Nazi-like camp where people were used as human guinea pigs.
V is planning on overthrowing the government, as Guy Fawkes did, but with something more powerful than gunpowder. Just so that we know that his terrorist attacks will be good for us, we are shown that he is really a sweetheart who likes to dance with his girl, played by a bald Natalie Portman, and likes to watch old black-and-white swashbucklers. Since the government's side has a bishop who is a pedophile and worse, and since the government side has demagogic commentators who equate homosexuals, Muslims and terrorists as being equally bad, we, the audience, know exactly where our allegiances are supposed to lie. But close your eyes and think of the World Trade Center as the explosions fill the theater in the movie's bombastic and operatic ending and see if you are still willing to applaud.
V FOR VENDETTA runs a long 2:15. It is rated R for "strong violence and some language" and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, March 17, 2006. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the AMC theaters, the Century theaters and the Camera Cinemas.
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Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
