V for Vendetta isn’t a confusing film, but it is, at times, a labourious effort to watch. The story revolves around a man dressed as Guy Fawkes who calls himself V, parading around the city of London and blowing up monuments and buildings on the 5th of Novemeber one year in order to make the point that England is going through a downward spiral to self destruction and totalitarianism.

Along the way, V (Hugo Weaving) comes across Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), rescuing her from the secret police that now harbour the streets of England in an attempt to curb dissidents and individuality after curfew (or even before). Evey is grateful and soon becomes an ally of V, but not without struggling to come to terms with V’s methods of terrorism in the city. Evey wants change in the world, but not wholly through V’s methods. Her parents were political activists that suffered at the hands of the British government that clamped down upon those who rallied against it’s “Big Brother” approach to governing it’s people through fear and violence.

We also learn that V is no ordinary man, who has suffered his own hardships in getting to where he has, and his vengeance has a purpose, rather than the mindless acts of a terrorist without cause. Still he is a terrorist, and one what is wanted by the Government with immediate effect.

As V carries out his terrorist acts, he vows that things will change a year from 5th November, as long as the people of the country rally with hm to change their world from that which is governed by a government for the people, by those in power, to a government for the people, by the people. This leads to the discovery of undercover dissidents, who have continually broken the law about other cultures, about the past history and so on by collecting momentos of the past, in a state that has become arrogant and facist in it’s actions, denying anything non-English as censored.

V for Vendetta is an interesting film, I mean can you imagine if the film was set in America where the head of state is mocked as a terrorist, a traitor and so on? The fury and furore over such a film would be enormous. In that sense, the Wachowski Brothers have taken a safer route to making the film. It would have been far more daring to have the film set Stateside.

Still as it stands, with the main character being a masked Guy Fawkes lookalike, it’s a very intriguing film that draws up a lot of questions about the world we live in. Sure much of it is not true, particularly in the UK, but it’s eerily possible and the questions offered are still applicable today.

Portman’s character is likeable and engaging, her English accent isn’t bad, and is definitely passable. Her character seems defined as one that is destined to change the way V feels and acts for his vengeance. It’s an interesting partnership that has a believable dynamic, in particular when Evey is held “prisoner” and comes out a stronger person for it.

Performances all round were pretty good, including that of John Hurt, who really has aged immensely now, as the Chancellor and head of state of England. It’s interesting that they keep referring to England, rather than the UK. There’s no mileage to cover what’s happened to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales which is a shame because it’s unlikely American audiences would be able to distinguish the difference between England, the UK and GB. It’s a small gaping hole in the plot, but one that can be dismissed as non-essential.

The action doesn’t really kick off until the very end, where V decides to meet his maker. At this point the film goes into a series of Matrix-esque performances, which is both mesmerising and entertaining to watch. It’s just a shame that it was all saved up for the very end, whereas earlier action sequences are rather uninteresting and dull if I was to be honest.

V for Vendetta is not genius in film, it’s interesting of course, offering and raising some genuine questions. But at the end of the day, it’s a well made, well paced film that manages to entertain and engage the audience. It’s not spectacular, and in fact it’s nothing very special, even with it’s attempts at intelligent messaging, but it’s a decent all round film and certainly one of the better efforts of Hollywood in recent years.

Verdict: Good performances, at times dull, but an otherwise watchable Hollywood comic-adaptaion.