This is (at least in my mind) another post 911 movie. The movie takes place sometime after 2015 in England. The United States is no longer a superpower like it was. The movie infers that the U.S. became weak due to the prolonged wars with the middle east.

The movie starts off by introducing us to the two main characters. Evie (Natalie Portman) is a young and innocent looking girl that goes out after curfew in England (London I believe) and she is almost assaulted by a couple of so called “cops”. V (Hugo Weaving) comes to her rescue. He is a knife wielding machine with quite a few moves. V dispatches these men rather quickly (you learn how a bit later) and befriends Evie. V is plotting against the establishment and sadly Evie gets sweep up in it.

The writing was interesting. It was very eloquent and well written. At times it seemed like an English major wrote it with all the quotes and the deliberate usage of “big words”. It was over the top and unnecessary at times but neat all at the same time. What I did not like about the writing was it failed to convey the characters true nature. It was superficial in my opinion. I never really got to know the characters through the dialogue, I was left to use my own experience to try to decipher who these personalities on the screen really were. Unlike other movies, I was not looking through their eyes rather I was the fly on the wall watching pieces of their personality. As you can probably tell I really wanted to get to know V a whole lot more than I did.

The acting was above average. Basically what I expect from a film of this type but nothing that is going to win any awards. Natalie Portman (Evie) seemed type cast to me. She could have still been Amadala as far as I am concerned. It wasn’t a bad performance, I’ve just seen it before.
The acting from Hugo Weaving (V) was the best acting in the movie. This is not because it was that good but because he was behind a mask the whole time and really brought his character out. This happened both through action as well as through the vocals. I was quite please with the result.

The character building was good for the two lead characters. What I did not like was that there was no character building for the two detectives. This disappointed me because I had no bearing on what was driving these men or what their true character was. I had no idea if they were good or bad, or their motives. This was an Issue I had with V, we as the audience had to make our own decision as to if V was good or bad.

Another draw back to focusing on Hugo and Natalie was that it took the mystery aspect out of the film. They had a great deal of potential there that they could have used but it ended up being wasted. There really were no big surprises or mysteries in this movie. What the movie focused most on was commentary of this new English society of the future.

The pacing of the movie was a bit off. In my mind it just did not flow well enough to capture my heart. There were times when I just wanted them to get it over with because I knew what was going to happen (and I was right.)

The special effects were minimal. I was expecting a lot be with it being made by the Wachowski brothers. So needless to say I was disappointed with that aspect.

The music was very enjoyable. There was a lot of bass and plenty of percussion. It was classical in nature. I enjoyed it enough that I may consider picking up the soundtrack.


Who is this for?
People that enjoy a slower paced movie that forces you to think a little.

Rating
R

The key players
Produced by: Joel Silver, Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski
Director: James McTeigue
Writers: Andy Wachowski, Larry Wachowski, Dave Gibbons, Alan Moore
Music: Dario Marianelli
Director of Photography: Adrian Biddle

Summary
A good movie if you like a slower paced movie. It was interesting and I do recommend it, as long as you have a bit of patience and you are not in the mood for action. If you are looking for another blockbuster like the Matrix then you will need to look elsewhere. It just doesn’t not deliver on that level.

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Akira


Recommended: Yes