V for Vendetta 2006

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The real thrills in V for Vendetta come in its dense and vividly detailed plot. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: Only here and there do you find the spark and kinetic zap delivered by the first Matrix picture. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Speaking of love, things go blooey instead of gooey whenever heroine and hero come close enough to touch; far from being sensual, let alone erotic, the movie proves to be not much fun at all. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: V won't win the Subtlety in Film Award, but fans of '70s movies especially will recognize that it's hardly out of line with the tradition of speculative fiction during times of strife. Read more

Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle: Richly satisfying entertainment the way movies are at their best, when they prod you to think. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: There are some great, brilliant action scenes, but this is more thoughtful and darker and more in the vein of Batman Begins. And that's a very good thing. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The dark and stylized V for Vendetta is visually exhilarating, provocative and disturbing. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Absorbing even in its incoherence, V for Vendetta manages to make an old popular mythology new. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The movie undercuts itself with its garishly adolescent tone. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: Only when the script and visuals stray too far from the source does the film lose its way, getting bogged down in the mechanics of big-budget action filmmaking and ponderous dialogue as it works toward a way-too-tidy, sentimental finale. Read more

Randy Cordova, Arizona Republic: V for Vendetta wants to be a thoughtful political allegory, a chaste love story and a high-powered thriller all at the same time. It winds up being a big snooze. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie's a handsome piece of work, dramatically powerful even when it backs into silliness. Read more

Carina Chocano, Los Angeles Times: V for Vendetta is not a movie of ideas so much as it is an idea mall. By the time you've gotten through it, you feel spent, loaded down and more than a little disoriented. Read more

David Germain, Associated Press: V for Vendetta lands somewhere between the neo-noir freshness of the original The Matrix and the indecipherable bombast of the two sequels. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: As manifestoes go, this one's a beauty: draped like a funeral, smart as a whip and full of black-hearted romantic monologues and dramatically slit necks. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: 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. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Fear is just one of the powerful themes in the ka-pow, ka-boom pleasure that is V for Vendetta. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: V for Vendetta has something going for it that's rare in mainstream films: It has ideas. It has questions. And even when it pretends to have answers, it also raises questions about those answers. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: V for Vendetta has a playful-demon vitality, but it's designed to let political adolescents of every age congratulate themselves. It's rage against the machine by the machine. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: There's no denying the value of Vendetta as an argument starter, even if the basic argument -- when is terrorism justified? -- is something less than novel. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: V for Vendetta engages in lots of speechifying about the importance of ideas and the freedom to question them. Ironically, though, the movie doesn't really seem to have any ideas of its own. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: As an action movie 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. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: This futuristic nightmare grasps at the same visceral uneasiness that juiced Matrix's cult before its impact was dulled by bloated sequels. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: A welcome blast of pop subversion. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Movie fans may be surprised to find [certain] questions being raised in a sci-fi movie. They should, instead, be appalled that it took a sci-fi movie to raise them. Read more

Bob Mondello, NPR.org: By the movie's midpoint, the Wachowski brothers' screenplay has gotten so bogged down in back story that it takes 40 minutes for director James McTiegue to get back to the explosions that his 16-year-old target audience assumes will solve everything. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: [An] enjoyable -- if occasionally irresponsible -- comic-book thriller. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Just when we were ready to give up mainstream movies as braindead,along comes the controversial and gleefully subversive V for Vendetta, a piece of corporate-sponsored art that will have audiences rooting for a bomb-throwing anarchist. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It becomes just another taste of every comic-book movie that isn't Sin City or A History of Violence. Vapid. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: A visually sumptuous concoction that combines political allegory, bloody action, and a few stunning cinematic moments into a solid piece of entertainment. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: 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. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Feels far too starched and clean to do its source material justice. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Gripping, intelligent and innovative. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: At last, there's a movie that's not afraid to look Big Brother in the eye and declare that fascism is totally uncool...V for Vendetta is dumb with a capital D. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: This is just darkness played bright, a disposable object but hardly objectionable. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: This is not the movie, and these are not the times, for sophisticated arguments. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Whether you're mindless or Mensa, you'll find stuff here to challenge and trouble you, the way a good piece of speculative fiction should. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: For all its anti-establishment esprit, it's more a case of Z for Zzzz. Read more

Leslie Felperin, Variety: Although often visually striking and undercoated by a compelling sci-fi concept, graphic-novel adaptation V for Vendetta feels flat as a storyboard. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: V for Vendetta is 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. Read more