| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
A- |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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An action thriller that makes you...think?
by Jerry (movies profile)
Mar 1, 2008
760
of
826 people found this review helpful
When the Matrix came out, average movie goers were wowed by the action and violence. But a funny thing happened...many began questioning their own existence and place in the universe. A rare feat indeed.
Consider the feat repeated. While never as far-reaching as the classic graphic novel (ah, the fear of the three-hour film), the makers of the Matrix have redeemed themselves from two bloated sequels to provide a fun, thoughtful ride through a repressive near-future fascist England.
The "hero," the lone survivor of a hideous concentration camp experiment, is the mysterious V, played with iconic flair by Hugo Weaving. Weaving, though masked the entire film, pulls off quite an accomplishment: he provides us with a protaginist whom you can't help but like but, goodness me, you don't need to agree with.
V's plan is simple: save the people through a violent overthrow of the repressive boot-in-the-face regime of John Hurt (ironically cast as a "Big Brother" leader 22 years after his fine performance as the failed V-esque Winston Smith in 1984). But the plan alters slightly when he save the always-afraid Evey Hammond (an oscar-worthy Natilie Portman), a low-level worker at the state-run TV station, from a rape attempt by corrupt policemen.
Through the year the movie covers, Evey transforms from a fightened young woman into a hero herself, thanks in part to what is one of the most moving scenes I have every born witness to (no spoilers, but I'll never look at note written on toliet paper the same way again).
As V moves slowly toward his goals, honest cop Eric Finch (an sublime Stephen Rea in a roll that could have easily become cliched) pieces the anti-hero's motives together. Rea and Portman are the soul of this film, the benefinciaries of the V's ideals instead of his questionable actions.
And that's what you walk away with from Vendetta: ideas. Debate. Hope. Despite all of the glorified violence, it is the idea that we the people have the power inside of us to be free if only we choose to be that permiates the terrible beauty of 2 hours 10 minutes of celluloid.
See it. You may not like it, you may not get it, but you will think about it. Mission accomplished. |
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