When the boys suggested that we rent the new DVD release of V for Vendetta, I have to say I was not really excited. The movie just didn’t look like something that I would enjoy from the previews. But, being the ultimately cool parents that we are, we gave in and decided to have a nice family night viewing of the movie. On the way home, reading the back cover, I described it to Jonna jokingly as “Phantom of the Opera meets Braveheart meets Batman”.
I have to say, my impressions of the movie from the previews was dead wrong. I enjoyed it immensely. Jonna is sticking with my original description, and when asked if she liked it gives a very flat “eh”.
The story is set in 2015, where the US is in ruins and England is under a Hitler like totalitarian rule of the Grand Chancellor. The “government rules the people” rather than the “people ruling the government”. The regime in power is using people for experimentation in the development of biological weapons and their antidotes.
Then along comes V (played by Hugo Weaving), a vigilante in a “Guy Fawkes” mask who begins to make efforts to organize the over throwing of the government using terrorist like tactics. While V is out to save the people from the government, he also has a need to “get even” with the group of people responsible for torture that he went through while experimented on by the government. I don’t think I’ve seen a movie that articulates both the altruistic goal of freeing the people along with a personal vendetta to “get even” with the people who have wronged the hero - another aspect of the movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.
Another thing that I really liked was that though you get some flashback information at a really high level of who V was, you never really get the full story - and unlike all of the Batman movies - no one, including the audience, ever gets to see who is behind V’s mask.
The final thing that struck me about the character was his complete lack of emotion through what he was doing. It wasn’t your typical “I’m angry and want to get even” type of character. The character had something he felt he needed to do, and although it was some pretty intense revenge, he approached it in completely calm way. I don’t know why this struck me the way it did, but I found it as kind of a cool character trait.
I’m not going to go into a drawn out description of the story. You have to see the movie. I will tell you that after watching and returning it to the video store, we went out and bought it. I’m looking forward to watching it again with Kelsi to get her impressions of it.
Definitely a movie to check out if you like “us against the oppressive government” kind of movies.
Ron’s rating: Two thumbs and a big toe up.
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