V for Vendetta – 4/5 stars

Remember, remember, the 5th of November

In a dystopian and post-apocalyptic United Kingdom following a world war, London is controlled by a fascist government. A vigilante wearing a Guy Fawkes mask simply known as “V” (Hugo Weaving), along with the help of Evey (Natalie Portman), takes a stand to free the people of London from the government’s oppressive rule while also hunting down those who wronged him in the past.

Directed by James McTeigue and written by Lilly Wachowski and Lana Wachowski (The Matrix), V for Vendetta was released March 17, 2005. The movie is based on the graphic novel V for Vendetta, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd in 1982.

I’m glad I finally got to see this. It was pretty good and had some awesome action.  I got some Watchmen vibes from this story, not that they were similar, but just the dark and gritty tone. I can definitely see where it draws inspiration from the comic book.

I thought both Weaving and Portman played their roles well. I was especially impressed when V first meets Evey and uses every word starting with V in the English language.

V for Vendetta had an interesting dystopian story about an oppressive government and one man taking a stand by introducing just enough chaos for someone to do something stupid. V introduced a little anarchy and, like dominoes, everything comes tumbling down. It just needed a little push. 

Man, they should really make these the classics we have to read in school because their ideas are more present and relevant in today’s world than anything else. It’s crazy seeing the parallels of this movie with the state of our world today. I’d highly recommend giving this film a watch because the similarities are uncanny, almost like Moore predicted what would happen in 2020 back in 1982. The movie is currently available to stream on Netflix.

I rated the movie 4/5 stars because I thought it had an interesting dystopian story and decent comic book-like action. I must admit, I now want to go and read the comic to see how similar and different the movie is. This may be somewhat of an oldie, but I can assure you there is no better time than now to go back and revisit this movie.