The first feeling I had when leaving the theater was that V had not been much of an action film. The trailers made it seem much more like an action-filled comicbook adventure than it had been, really. That doesn't mean that it wasn't good (Natalie Portman is definitely an asset), just that if you were expecting something light and shallowly exciting, you would be disappointed. The thing about V for Vendetta is that it's serious as a corrupt judge, or a egomaniacal dictator.
Setting it in the UK was a stroke of genius, rather than the concession to the Bush Administration that some of the films critics have made it out to be. If indeed it was motivated by cowardice, the Wachowskis' yellow streak is beautiful. John Hurt brings a panache to the role of the chancellor that only an Englishman could. Hugo Weaving steals the movie with simply the most brilliant piece of voice acting ever. He is so good, you never feel a need to see his face. Britain is the star of V, the gravitas, the absence of American naivete, it makes V that much more believable.
It's clear that this movie was not made with a Matrix-sized budget. It had the feel of Billy Zane's Phantom to it, a cheap movie pretending to be Batman. What saves it, is the message. However ridiculous might be it's basis, there is no question as to the earnestness of its exponents, the parallels of the film's UK to the present day USA are as obvious as a pile of shit on the dinner-table.
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