These three comic-based adventures have more than enough brooding menace,* dazzling special effects and well-drawn characters to justify repeat viewings,* and now you can get all three in one go. V For Vendetta Hugo Weaving stars as code-named V,* a man on a mission to shake society out of its blank complacent stares. His tactics,* however,* are a bit revolutionary to say the least. The world in which V lives is very similar to Orwell's totalitarian dystopia in 1984: after years of various wars,* England is now under *"big brother" Chancellor Adam Sutler *(played by John Hurt,* who ironically played Winston Smith in the movie 1984) whose party uses force and fear to run the nation. After gaining power,* minorities and political dissenters were rounded up and removed; artistic and unacceptable religious works were confiscated. Cameras and microphones are littered throughout the land,* and the people are perpetually sedated through the governmentally controlled media. Taking inspiration from Guy Fawkes,* the 17th century co-conspirator of a failed attempt to blow up Parliament on November 5,* 1605,* V dons a Fawkes mask and costume and sets off to wake the masses by destroying the symbols of their oppressors,* literally and figuratively. At the beginning of his vendetta,* V rescues Evey *(Natalie Portman) from a group of police officers and has her live with him in his underworld lair. It is through their relationship where we learn how V became V,* the extremities of the party's corruption,* the problems of an oppressive government,* V's revenge plot and his philosophy on how to induce change. * Based on the popular graphic novel by Alan Moore,* V For Vendetta's screenplay was written by the Wachowski Brothers *(of The Matrix fame) and directed by their protg James McTeigue
