V for Vendetta is a grandiose and bombastic movie that is also kind of mystical. The timeline is set from November 2027 - November 2028. The world has been dealing with a deadly pandemic named "St. Mary's virus", named after its first outbreak occurring in a church. Due to this, the United States has fallen into civil war and lost its global power. Other countries around the world are also dealing with major societal problems as well. As a consequence of this worldwide chaos, the fascist Norsefire party takes control of Britain's politics and starts instituting many societal changes.

Once in control of the government, it institutes progressively more stringent policies to the point of locking up gay citizens, non-sanctioned religions, and anyone who outwardly disagrees with the government. It utilizes rampant surveillance along with state-run propaganda news stations to control the country. It uses things like government vans driving down streets listening to conversations that citizens have in their own home. Overall, it is very similar in tone to George Orwell's 1984 novel.

Within this setting, we follow the anti-fascist plots of the main character V (Hugo Weaving) and the self-discovery of everyday person, Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman). The movie is extremely poignant in our current political climate as we are seeing a significant rise in fascist tendencies across the world right now. Coincidentally, we are also approaching the years set in the film and have seen a pandemic similar to the one that occurred in the movie.

While the film's focus is not primarily an action one, the action scenes felt well crafted and not too outlandish. As a viewer, you consistently find yourself wondering how V is going to get out of the sticky situations he gets into. You wonder about his physical prowess and how far he planned. The character truly is a showman and brilliant at inspiring the populace to action. At the same time, we also see him act on personal matters out of vengeance. and make decisions that can be questionable. The character is not purely a 'good guy' and depending on philosophic view, can even take on a morally bad role.

He believes that sometimes action and violence are unavoidable necessities to help society. He even locks up Evey in a fake prison and tortures her to help her on her journey of fearlessness and commitment. Characters like these are much more interesting to watch compared to characters that have no flaws and act perfectly all the time. It makes them more relatable as we are not perfect either. But V also acknowledges that he may not always be right. This can be seen when he lets Evey make the final decision to blow up the parliament building.

The dialogue itself is the film's real shining point, in my opinion. V has some amazing monologues, but the conversations between side characters are never used as filler or unimportant dialogue only for the sake of progressing the plot. A lot of the lines between the secret council running the government show how dangerous authoritarian government structures can get when everyone is only looking out for themselves and is completely willing to sell out or frame another member. These conversations show their fear of losing power and the lengths that they are willing to go to in order to keep it. There is also great dialogue from the lead inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) as he slowly uncovers the corruption and downright evil plots that his government has been a part of.

Here are some highlights of scenes that I really enjoyed (if you read the Andor review, you might pick up that I am a fan of character monologues):

:::info For exact scene references like this, I will try to provide video clips. If they start at a certain point, feel free to watch the whole clip from the beginning, but I will start them at the points where they are relevant. :::

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IyuK069I-w V's Revolutionary TV Speech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKn1R6fekk4 V's Introduction

Bonus if you can count how many words start with V in that one. If interested, here is a page that dissects the introduction.

A small criticism that I have with the dialogue, though, is not really with the lines themselves. Sometimes the audio levels are really low when the characters are speaking, especially when they are practically whispering. This makes it hard to make out the lines, which can be frustrating. This is becoming more a problem nowadays, as well, with all the complex audio mixing done for movies with extremely wide arrays of scene types ranging from quiet speaking scenes to explosive action scenes.

Near the end of the movie, the viewer is expecting V to take off his mask and reveal his face to Evey. However, in a really nice subversion, he refuses to take it off as his physical appearance does not matter. This is just builds onto the themes in the movie about ideas being greater than a single individual. That an idea believed in by the people is not killable or mortal. It follows a similar vein that Batman did in Batman Begins when Bruce talks about becoming more than a man, but rather a symbol to the people of Gotham. People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy and I can't do that as Bruce Wayne. As a man, I'm flesh and blood. I can be ignored, I could be destroyed. But as a symbol, I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting. Bruce Wayne, Batman Begins (2005) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ac7a9YFx1T0

V actually says something similar in the movie during the final fight. Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask, there is an idea Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WZ0XSf23rs

There are some other minor things I want to note as well. Particularly that some of the effects and visuals felt a bit dated in action scenes/set designs. The plot and stories of each character can also be a bit hard to follow if you aren't paying attention, given its mysterious reveal of events throughout the movie. Also, November 5 is my birthday so that is pretty cool.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the review and I highly recommend watching the movie.

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Bonus pictures of the Madison sunrise and sunset