Simply put, V for Vendetta is one of the most successful translations of a comic book into film that I’ve seen. And that is saying quite a bit considering the complexity of Alan Moore’s series of the same name. The plot revolves around a masked anarchist vigilante and a young girl named Evey, whom our Guy Hawkes-a-like antihero has saved from government thugs, and the war they wage against a totalitarian state and an apathetic public. Purists and devotees of the comics may balk at some of the changes made in the plot for the film version, but the director has done a good job at updating the political context from Thatcher-era England to encompass the landscape of Bush-era America. I was also impressed that this film does not conflate the issues at hand into a binary portrayal of moral and immoral, left and right; there are scenes where the audience will have to question V’s tactics and motives, instead of just assuming that our protagonist is always in the right. Overall, V for Vendetta balances many things: polemics, action, character development, and even a bit of humor amongst the dystopia. And it does it well.

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