'œYou thought Star Wars was about Bush? Mere child's play,' said Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel. V for Vendetta's political messages are so blatant that by the half-hour mark you'll be rolling your eyes. Screenwriters Andy and Larry Wachowski paint a bleak future in which homosexuality is illegal and every newscaster is Bill O'Reilly. Only V, the masked hero who is equal parts Zorro, Guy Fawkes, and the Phantom of the Opera, can fight the power, with his chosen sidekick, the beautiful Evey (Natalie Portman). His plan to blow up the buildings of Parliament makes him a terrorist in the eyes of the government, but a freedom fighter to the people. Yes, it's a shame that director James McTeigue lacks the subtle touch, said Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. But at least the film 'œactually has ambitions.' The Wachowskis pump energy into every scene, from the most violent to the most meditative. Unfortunately, they couldn't re-create the mind-blowing power of The Matrix, said Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times. Not only is the philosophy behind this movie self-contradictory, but the rules for its fictional world are borrowed wholesale from George Orwell's 1984: The food rations are inedible, television is ubiquitous, and the dictator's face is plastered all over town. That's 'œthe kind of homage that would make some people call their lawyers.'
Rating: R
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