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V for Vendetta
Warner Bros.


7.7

based on 39 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 382 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and some language

Starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Rupert Graves, and Roger Allam

Set against the futuristic landscape of totalitarian Britain, V for Vendetta tells the story of a mild-mannered young woman named Evey (Portman) who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man (Weaving) known only as "V." Incomparably charismatic and ferociously skilled in the art of combat and deception, V ignites a revolution when he urges his fellow citizens to rise up against tyranny and oppression. As Evey uncovers the truth about V's mysterious background, she also discovers the truth about herself -- and emerges as his unlikely ally in the culmination of his plan to bring freedom and justice back to a society fraught with cruelty and corruption. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Drama \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Andy Wachowski Larry Wachowski Alan Moore (characters) David Lloyd (characters)
DIRECTED BY:	James McTeigue
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: August 1, 2006 Theatrical: March 17, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	132 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Germany

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Premiere Glenn Kenny

A compelling, rousing and at times strangely moving entertainment.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Richly satisfying entertainment the way movies are at their best, when they prod you to think.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

V for Vendetta puts its ideological intent first, and happens to provide smashing entertainment only as a vehicle for delivering its message.

Time Richard Corliss

It's a terrific movie. I love the look and the verve of the thing, the confidence of its epic design, its smart use of half a dozen noted British thesps, lending weight and wit to the supporting roles.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The explosive V for Vendetta is powered by ideas that are not computer-generated. It's something rare in Teflon Hollywood: a movie that sticks with you.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

An entertaining piece of pulp fiction.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

V for Vendetta represents 2006's first memorable motion picture - a visually sumptuous concoction that combines political allegory, bloody action, and a few stunning cinematic moments into a solid piece of entertainment.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Portman doesn't catch fire until the second half, then heaves herself into emotional action; this suits her initially passive, mostly unthinking character. Weaving, who acts entirely with his voice, is V's ideal embodiment: witty, rueful, pitiless, visionary and mad.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Visually exhilarating, provocative and disturbing.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The Wachowski Brothers once again they prove themselves our reigning masters of murk.

Empire Dan Jolin

Setting out more to challenge us with its ideas than make us whoop at the action, Vendetta can be clumsy, but there are enough impressive flourishes to make up for its stumblings.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

It's the perfect moment for the ridiculous but riotously enjoyable revolutionary comic-book thriller V for Vendetta-which will doubtless outrage conservatives and unnerve fuddy-duddys but liberate the rest of us with its magisterial irresponsibility.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

One of the most eloquent tales in ages of dysfunctional love – between a man and his ideals, between a country and its government, and, in the end, between Evey and V.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

With most action thrillers based on graphic novels, we simply watch the sound and light show. V for Vendetta, directed by James McTeigue, almost always has something going on that is actually interesting, inviting us to decode the character and plot and apply the message where we will.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

A lot of dark, Orwellian fun.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Even if V for Vendetta isn't nearly as incendiary as it's been made out to be by some alarmist critics, there's still something enjoyably subversive about it, beginning with the way it tramples over the conventions of the contemporary action film.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Hugo Weaving, weaving deftly beneath a fixed plastic grin and Prince Valiant wig as the mysterious avenger in V for Vendetta, both chills and amuses throughout this enjoyable - if occasionally irresponsible - comic-book thriller.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

First-time director James McTeigue's big, bold imagery, with slashing reds and blacks, is a close approximation of the novel's look and feel.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Mostly, it's content to remain a compelling, visually striking political mystery with some big ideas woven into it--subversive notions about integrity, liberty, and political change.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

As a fix of pop iconography, V for Vendetta is eyeball grabbing, even if it lacks the relentless videogame bravura that sold the Matrix films. As a movie, however, it's merely okay, with a pivotal dramatic weakness: Evey, for all the attentions of her revolutionary Svengali, remains, in essence, a bystander, and Portman, her head shaved, plays her like Joan of Arc as a tremulous Girl Scout.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Brutally gorgeous and seething with incendiary images.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

From a fan's perspective, though, one might wish for a smaller budget and a truly uncompromising vision.

The Hollywood Reporter John DeFore

Viewers expecting a thrill ride might be disappointed. V engages in a couple of satisfying crime-fighting set pieces, but the story is more occupied with mystery and intrigue. Happily, it almost is entirely free of the hollow pomposity that marred the Wachowskis' last two "Matrix" films.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The swashbuckling first hour is superior to the second, which bursts at the seams with backstory, but a rousing climax makes this the most potent piece of agitpop in years.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

With its emphasis on dialogue and political machinations over explosions and kung fu fighting, it remains to be see whether or not V for Vendetta will actually find one (a wider audience).

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's the strangest comic-book superhero movie you're likely to see this year. For anyone looking for something totally different in this most overworked of Hollywood genres, this is it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

V for very, very ordinary.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The real villain is a cowed and lazy citizenry. Meaning all of us. Disappointingly, V for Vendetta makes this point early and moves on, at some point turning as shallow as what it protests against.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Finally, a film to unite movie-mad members of Al Qaeda with your neighbor's kid, the one with the crush on Natalie Portman.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

By the time you've gotten through it, you feel spent, loaded down and more than a little disoriented. Part of the problem is that the movie's big concepts - violence begets violence, absolute power corrupts absolutely, everything is connected, my terrorist is your freedom fighter, etc. - are pithy, brief and irrefutable enough to embroider on throw pillows.

Variety Leslie Felperin

Suffers from many of same problems as last two installments of producers Andy and Larry Wachowski's "Matrix" franchise: indigestible dialogue, pacing difficulties and too much pseudo-philosophical info.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Absorbing even in its incoherence,V for Vendetta manages to make an old popular mythology new. Impossible not to break into a grin: It's the thought that counts.

Newsweek Jeff Giles

The movie plays like a clumsy assault on post-9/11 paranoia. It references "America's war," uses imagery direct from Abu Ghraib and contains dialogue likely to offend anyone who's not, say, a suicide bomber.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The more valid question is how anyone who isn't 14 or under could possibly mistake a corporate bread-and-circus entertainment like this for something subversive. You want radical? Wait for the next Claire Denis film.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Both oversimplifies and overcomplicates Moore's and Lloyd's vision, but it never cuts to the bone. It's a movie drawn with big, bold strokes and very little feeling -- a tracing-paper exercise masquerading as a masterpiece.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The film is beset by incoherence and implausibilities that are perplexing, given the close relationship between the Wachowskis and the director, Mr. McTeigue.

The New Yorker David Denby

The quarter-century-old disgruntled fantasies of two English comic-book artists, amplified by a powerful movie company, and ambushed by history, wind up yielding a disastrous muddle.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

V for Vendetta is a dud - far too long at nearly two and a half hours, with flat, grungy visuals, choppy editing and no sense of urgency. But as a political work, it's something else - heavy-handed, reactionary and flat-out stupid. (For the record, Moore has publicly distanced himself from the film, saying it bears precious little resemblance to his original creation.)

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A piece of pulp claptrap; it has no insights whatsoever into totalitarian psychology and always settles for the cheesiest kinds of demagoguery and harangue as its emblems of evil. They say they want a revolution? Then give us a revolution, one that's believable, frightening, heroic, coherent and not a teenagers' freaky power trip.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 382 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Kristina S gave it a0:
The film won’t work for the same reason that Watchmen won’t work. Even Alan Moore who wrote Watchmen has said it won’t work as a film. Both V and Watchmen depend on one giant thing that no longer exists: fear of a nuclear war between the US and the Soviets. Based on the fear of the extermination of the human race, even an extreme figure like Watchman’s Oz or Vendetta’s V can appear justifiable. Outside that end of the Cold War fear however the source material won’t work. What makes this film junk as a film and as storytelling is that it’s explicit pro-Terrorist and anti-American, anti-Bush politics fly in the face of the reality: terrorists really DO want to kill us all; they’ve tried very hard; and have succeeded in Beslan, Bali, Tunisia, London, Madrid, Jakarta, Istanbul, Sharm El Sheik, Amman, New Delhi and more. Not to mention NYC and Arlington VA and Shank’s Field PA. The authorities don’t look like fascists but people barely able to cope with the onslaught of evil that leads to Islamic nutcases beheading 16 year old Catholic Schoolgirls. Hard to make those guys sympathetic. Hard to make the authorities fighting these guys the enemy. At a time when people risk their lives to vote against bin Laden’s terrorists intent on blowing them up, the film is going to flop. Big time. Why? Because what people see on the news every day tells them the movie’s politics and story is full of garbage. What’s bigger is the agency problem of Hollywood. At a time when more and more of Hollywood’s core audience (male 12-24) is bailing out for video games that give them heroes to be and villains to defeat, Hollywood is intent on driving them away. Guys want to be John McClain defeating the terrorists in Die Hard, not being one of them. If I were Icann I’d be pushing this film as WHY Time-Warners should be broken up; a big terrorist attack killing say thousands of Americans (we can’t be lucky forever) contemporanous with release and not only is the film toast but so will Portman and Weaving as stars due to collateral damage. It’s pretty telling that the best Hollywood can come up with is a big slap in the face to “Jesusland” and the idea that terrorists are bad guys, instead of making a movie based on Flight 93, the guys in Afghanistan, or counter-terrorist guys. Being explicitly opposed to what most of your paying customers hold dear is a good way to lose their business.

Kerry L. gave it an8:
After reading the posts on the site, I felt inclined to put in my two cents. V was a fine movie, but as with any movie, it had flaws. The biggest flaw was Natalie Portman. She was poorly cast; the role seemed too big for her. The rest of the actors did an amazing job, especially Hugo Weaving even though you never see his face. The British actors did an excellent job, as they almost always do. The film has a fine plot, but it took entirely too much depth out of the novel. The film could have been about half an hour longer and been much better. What is very interesting about the story is that despite being written more than twenty years ago, it remains relevant today. Although not as good as it could have been, it is definitely worth watching. A mature audience which is not letting its political biases cloud its judgments will enjoy the film for what it is: a good action film, with a quality story.

Chris S. gave it a10:
The voting tells you more about people than the film. The story is a powerful one showing a future in which right wing extremism goes well, to extremes. The rankings seem less about the movie more about the readers reaction to the consequences of extremism in the state. I did not find the plot that unbelieveable, rather a bit too close to reality for comfort. Plagues like that are conceivable. Medi manipulation like that is conceivble. And the masses well we were led after September 11th weren't we? The way it critises those who hate for race or religious reasons...I can well understand their reactions to this movie. Better a backlash against the movie rather than one at ourselves. 10. Its novel. Its clever. No other movie like it. ...but its definatly not Superman saves the world.

Sylvok A gave it a9:
Was an alright movie, not the best ever made but one I still dont mind watching. Also side note, but did anyone else notice a large amount of the negative reviews seem to be copy-pasted. I think this got freepered at one point.

Dan gave it a10:
One of my favorite movies. I understand why some didn't enjoy this movie, but for me everything really came together. The story may be "juvenile" in terms of politics, but maybe it needs to be so that more people can understand it. Moving, and politically motivating. Take the chance if you are on the edge, it really is phenomenal.

Harry F. gave it a10:
This is an amazing film, great characters, lots of action, but at times it is also very dark and political, and even humourous at times. You will like the characters in this film, especially V, who is impossible not to like.

[Anonymous] gave it a10:
The 2006 movie V for Vendetta is an intelligent, action packed, political thrill ride. The movie is based on the David Lloyd graph novel. The Wachowski Brothers (The Matrix) wrote the screen play and James McTeigue directed this great movie. V for Vendetta takes place in a near future Great Britain with a totalitarian regime in power. The theme that portrayed throughout the movie is that the people should not be afraid of their government, the government should be afraid of its people. The main character Evey Hammond (Nathalie Portman) is a working class woman who gets mixed up with the mysterious freedom fighter/terrorist known only as V. The man in the Guy Fox mask is played by Hugo Weaving (Mr. Smith in The Matrix). V wants nothing more than to topple the unjust and controlling totalitarian regime by any means necessary which brings up many ethical dilemmas throughout the movie. Symbolism is a huge part of the movie and is coupled with intelligent dialogue and allows for an intellectually rewarding experience. Nathalie Portman delivers a good acting performance and really goes all the way with shaving her head. Hugo Weaving delivers as well with the difficult situation of having to act without any facial expression and exclusively using tone of voice and hand gestures. Overall V for Vendetta satisfies your pallet for intelligent storyline, thrilling action sequences, and creative acting that keeps you engaged for the entire two hours of movie magic.

V for Vendetta Warner Bros.

V for Vendetta
Warner Bros.