I had seen and heard a few negative reviews about this film so I was expecting the worst and was pleasantly surprised by something that turned out to be one of the best films I have seen this year.

A film from the Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix), “V For Vendetta” is the story of a masked ‘terrorist’ named V (Hugo Weaving) who has been working to undermine the totalitarian government of a future Britain. Through acts of sabotage he hopes to shock the British public out of their complacency and into regaining control of their lives.

The story starts one year from his final act when he tells the public that he will return on November 5th the following year and destroy the Houses of Parliament in the way Guy Fawkes had tried to do centuries earlier.

Along the way, he saves Evey (Natalie Portman) from an attack by corrupt state police known as Fingermen. Because she comes from a family of known protesters she is assumed to be an accomplice of V and is now on the state’s wanted list.

The third story arc in this film centers around Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) who is given the task of catching V before he completes his plan. I found this arc to be the most interesting, as though the inspectors investigations we uncover a government secret that makes any act of terror by V pale into insignificance.

Based on a graphic novel by David Lloyd and Alan Moore, this is a fantastic film. My only real disappointment was that there couldn’t be more of it. I really came away feeling that I wanted to see more of these characters and their role in the events of that year.

The acting was superb although I wonder if Hugo Weaving wasn’t a little wasted in the role of the always masked V.

The extras on this DVD were ok and watchable although they really fell into the ‘patting ourselves on the back’ genre and I was starting to wonder if they’d run out of superlatives before the end of the feature.

It’s a great action adventure and one that I can heartily recommend for anyone’s DVD collection. I’d give it a well deserved four stars.

~Jeff K