V for Vendetta - Review

A few days ago I decided to re-watch one of my favourite comic-book movies, V for Vendetta. Some of you may already be aware that the original story for V was written Alan Moore (Watchmen, From Hell, and creator of the Joker character in Batman), but due to his difficult experiences with Hollywood in the past, he declined to have anything to do with V or any subsequent adaptations of his works (which I personally think is a great shame seeing as how V and Watchmen are among my favourite films, though I will agree that Hollywood did ruin From Hell and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen).

So then, how best to describe V for Vendetta. Well, the first thing you should know is that it was produced by the Wachowski brothers (The Matrix), so as you'd expect the fight scenes are pretty spectacular. But what still impresses me most about this movie is its honesty to the story, and yes, I know the screenplay actually differs a fair bit from Moore's original work, but in my opinion the core principles are still there and as strong as ever. I love that as much screen time (perhaps even more) is given to detectives trying to find V as is given to V himself, and I love that I feel as though I'm seeing the world through their eyes and not just his. And of course the performances of Huge Weaving and Natalie Portman are both excellent, as it that of Stephen Fry.

I think this will remain one of my favourite movies for some time.