Okay, I went last night with a couple of friends to catch the midnight showing of V for Vendetta.  I had heard many good things in pre-release reviews, and a few bad things.  After seeing the movie, I can only say one thing:

If you are intelligent, can handle not only action but actual dialog and concepts that need understanding, then go and see this movie.  If you thought that XXX or Fast and the Furious was deep and meaningful, stay away.   V for Vendetta requires that your bring your mind with you, open and willing to explore ideas that are not spoon fed to you like sugar bites.

I won’t reveal the movie or it’s ending here, I always think that is unfair.  I will say that the acting job of a man in a fixed mask and wig is truly amazing, as physical actions and the powerful words come together to give this character more depth and expression than can be imagined.  The twists and resposition of people from “good guy” to “bad guy” back to “good guy” and “not so sure” is wonderful.  There are many, many main characters in this movie, a pleasure in itself to see a movie that isn’t just a formulatic “guy and girl” film (although there is a nice undertone of the intimate relationships between many of the characters invovled).

I said to my friends when we left:  20 years from now this movie will be looked back on as a real look inside what was happening in the 2000-2008 period (the Bush years).  There is incredible social and moral issues being put on the table and dissected  with the accuracy of a V knife, sliced and held up to the light not to show the good and clean side, but to show the guts and the gore that comes with making difficult personal and moral decisions.   There is a discussion of power, and how power corrupts… and how absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Deep and meaningful, maybe for me one of the few movies since Trainspotting where I left the end of the movie feeling enlightened, entertained, depressed, and full of thought.  For me, a movie that will go down as a classic look at good and evil, right and wrong… and how that right and wrong all depends on where you are sitting