Revenge and rebellion in a future fascist Britain, incited by the mysterious V.

I really loved this book, and was so excited by the upcoming movie...I dragged Mr. Otter to a 10:30 pm show on a worknight (yes, I love late movies, but he has trouble staying awake for them, and this one didn't get out til 1 am...!) And he really liked it. But of course he hadn't read the book.

And you already know what's wrong with it: they took a beautifully written book, full of complex characters, intricate interactions, well thought out plot lines, beautiful dialogue, and a really really good ending...and turned it into a movie.

And of course it was the Wachowski brothers, the team that brought us the Matrix movies, the first of which was really, really good, and the second and third of which sucked big, fat, hairy rocks. Not a good track record...but they got some of it right.

The look of the movie was excellent. The casting was excellent, Hugo Weaving as V, even though you never see his face, and especially Natalie Portman as Evie, she was brilliant...and gorgeous, even with her hair shaved off, wow. Many of the other characters were good too, looked like they had come right out of the book.

But the intricate relationship between V and Evie was just not there. His teaching her to think and be politically aware, his slow undermining of the society, and especially the final scenes, which are left to the people to decide...the Wachowskis went for the easy big boffo ending instead, and cheapened the story by doing so.

It's worth seeing, they got a lot of things right...but then go back and read the book and get the bad taste out of your brain.