My first impression of this movie was that there were WAY too many words. Almost from the get go you had to actually switch your brain on and listen to the delivered Shakespearean dialogue. You probably wouldn’t have missed much as the story is pretty basic.

In V for Vendetta it is some time in the future in England with a self-righteous conservative government, ruled by a ranting Hitler-esque dictactor (not sure why anyone would follow such an annoying man), in power (many have likened it to the current US administration.) V (played by Hugo Weaving) is a knife-throwing Guy-Fawkes-mask-wearing crusader intent on freeing the world from the what he perceives is a corrupted power. That he acts likes a terrorist is an interesting spin on the usual good guy superhero routine. Natalie Portman is in there as well as an initially helpless bystander who transforms (after the employment of a rather unsavoury psychological tactic by V) into a brave fearless woman that she always wished she could be.

The movie was light on action (though what action there was was gory and bloody) but heavy on politics and surprisingly, for a comic-book movie, light on special effects so it is the most different interpretation of a comic-book you could get.

Overall I guess I enjoyed the movie though it was hard at times to concentrate as hardly anyone ever spoke normally – it was Shakespeare or zealotry – and it felt like the message was often lost in all the speeches that were being made. I wouldn’t say its a movie for everyone but you may enjoy it if you go in with an open mind.