V for Vendetta - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

V for Vendetta



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
Remember, remember, the 5th of November.

Ok, so maybe it’s only November 3rd, but close enough. Being that we’re still getting pounded by the pandemic and most movie studios are laying people off, new movies are hard to come by. But right along with that comes a silver lining as the studios are throwing out more and more catalog titles on 4K UHD by the days. This time we get a revamp of one of the format war’s early release titles, and a film that is SORELY needed a visual and audio upgrade for the better part of 12 years. Sure, the old 2008 release of V for Vendetta was solid enough at the time, but it suffered from sharpening, some wonky CGI blending, and an anemic Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track that was disappointing even back in 2008. Luckily Warner has gone back and redone both the video AND the audio, giving us the sound and picture the film has really deserved.

It’s been nearly 7 years since I’ve seen V for Vendetta as it became the new Matrix for me, and by that I mean that I watched the film so many times from 2006 to 2013 that I finally got burnt out from it all. So I felt a bit excited revisiting the film for the first time in over 2/3rds of a decade and I wasn’t disappointed. I know that the film got trashed on a bit for truncating a lot of the original Alan Moore graphic novel, and that V was portrayed as an anti-hero rather than the chaotic neutral character he was on paper (in the novel he was intentionally written so that you could could lionize him, or view him as a raging lunatic and Alan Moore designed it so both sides have plenty of evidence), but I adore the flick. It’s fun, flashy, got plenty of the Wachowski’s trade mark visual aesthetics, and it ironically still ties into politics today, despite being made 15 years ago on screen and the original source material being 38 years old.

In the not too distant future the world has changed a WHOLE lot. The United States has turned into a wasteland, and England has gone totally fascist as a highly conservative and super religious political party has taken control of the nation and turned it into a modern day WWII Germany. Curfews are in effect, government agent are given carte blanche, and those who protest the iron fist of the Norsefire party and the control of High Chancellor Adam Sutler (Tom Hurt). Poor Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) is sucked into a world of intrigue and violence when her life is saved by a mysterious man in a Guy Fawkes mask who calls himself simply V (Hugo Weaving). Little does she know his is an anarchist with plans of Norsefire. After blowing up a building, she is targeted as an accomplice and the police are hot on her tail. Suddenly she’s thrust into V’s gigantic revenge plot and soon learns that the state is worse than she thought.

The plot is utterly fantastic in my opinion, and while it doesn’t go down the anarchist roots of the comics, it uses the vigilante justice of V as the focal point for the film’s violence. He’s been a medical experiment for the Norsefire party for years, and after gaining super human strength and speed he was able to escape and plan his revenge for years. Now he’s out and ready to take down the people who created him, and one by one picks off the decadently fat officials that were simply ideologues in another life. The plot tries to make it seem like Evey has more of a romantic relationship with V than she really did, and tweaks her becoming radicalized by him into more of an “awakening”, but all in all it keeps the general feel of the graphic novel.

Even some 15 years later (38 since it was the source material in graphic novel form) since Alan Moore wrote his troubling story about the problems he was seeing in British government in the 1980s. Our governments seem more and more out of control as we speak, and the idea of the people rising up and pushing forward the idea of hope and advancement is more effective and palpable today more than ever. My only real complaint with the film is that you can SEE just how much was cut out. Certain plot points (such as V’s real motives) are shortened and shoved in the middle, while others are fully on display. However, the stylistic action, the witty dialog and great performances by Weaving, Stephen Fry and Portman alone make this is a visceral and highly exciting action flick even to this day.




Rating:

Rated R for strong violence and some language




4K Video: Video:

I popped in the old VC-1 single layer Blu-ray that I’ve had forever (and comes in the 4K UHD combo pack, the new 4K remaster was only reserved for the 4K disc so no newly remastered Blu-ray as well) and was shocked at the differences between the two disc. The visual aesthetics for the film don’t lend itself towards what we usually think of when we imagine a great looking 4K disc with lots of HDR, but the differences are staggering due to the weaknesses of the old master. The Blu-ray looks overly hot on the whites, and the auto sharpening is distracting, especially around the outlines of people as it accentuates the massive green screen they’re standing in front of. The grain structure on the 4K UHD disc is scrumptious, without all of the noisiness of the previous disc. Fine details are obviously stronger all around, but it’s really not night and day difference. The real advantage stems from the HDR which stabilize the colors a lot more, and without the sharpening around character edges the film just appears much more rich and natural looking. The blacks can sometimes look a little hazy and milky by design, but shadow detail is exquisite, and the daylight shots are amazing. It’s like watching a whole new movie and certainly is how the film SHOULD have looked, but was stymied by the inferior VC-1 codec and single layer needed to fit on the HD-DVD 30 gig format max.







Audio:

One of my biggest complaints from the WB Blu-ray from back in the day was that their 5.1 Dolby TrueHD track was rather anemic. Warner was known for using 640 kbps lossy Dolby Digital tracks on their Blu-rays and to add insult to injury, one of the FEW Blu-rays that got a lossless track was rather subpar, even by 2008 standards. The new Atmos mix seems to be a complete remix, as it sounds nothing like the squashed 5.1 track on the Blu-ray. It’s vibrant and powerful, with earth shaking bass and a stunning use of Atmos’s directional capabilities. The whistling of V’s blades are amazing to hear as they slice through the air, and the overheads actually get some nice ambient noises with crowds yelling, and the fight sequences bleeding in as as bodies get flipped. Needless to say, this is a massive improvement over the old TrueHD track and luckily not just a repackage of the old track in an Atmos wrapper with a few discrete channel changes. MUCH deserved.
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Extras:

4K Disc (all new extras)
• James McTeigue & Lana Wachowski in Conversation
• Natalie Portman's Audition
• V for Vendetta Unmasked

Blu-ray Disc
• In Movie Experience Director's Notebook
• Designing the Near Future
• Remember, Remember: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
• Freedom! Forever!: Making V for Vendetta
• England Prevails: V for Vendetta and the New Wave in Comics
• Natalie Portman Rap
• Cat Power: Montage
• Theatrical Trailer
• Soundtrack Album Info

Final Score: ​

V for Vendetta was a moderate hit back in 2006, but one of my favorite films of that year, despite Alan Moore hating it so much he had his name removed from the credits (though, to be fair, Alan Moore doesn’t like much of anything, especially when it comes to his comics being adapted to film). Hugo Weaving is impressive, the visuals are stunning (especially that last fight in the alley between Creedy and V) and the 4K UHD is a MASSIVE improvement over the old 2008 disc. Easily recommended for those who liked the film, and for those who just want another great 4K UHD disc, you will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Hugo Weaving, Natalie Portman, Stephen Fry, Stephen Rea, John Hurt, Tim Pigott-Smith, Eddie Marsan
Directed by: James McTeigue
Written by: The Wachowski Siblings
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Polish, Thai DD 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Korean, Mandarin (Traditional), Norwegian, Polish, Swedish, Thai
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 133 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 3rd, 2020

Recommendation: Highly Recommended

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check this out.

 

[Asere]

I saw it a long time ago, great movie. Thanks for the review.

 

[JBrax]

Thanks for the review Mike. Might just have to add this to the collection.

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Classic. I didn't know this was coming, will have to pick it up.

 

[Epoxy1]

Nice review Mike. I agree with your assessment and it was fun to revisit.