I saw this movie in the theater back in 2005 and have had this conversation with many people since. In a way it is the inspiration for the blog. Obviously most people don't agree that it should be fixed, judging by the overwhelming love over at imdb.com.
I was pretty disappointed in this movie however. I have never read the comic book and I don't care about the comic book in relation to the movie. (Movies should be separate works of art, inspired by, but not a copy of the comic/novel/story).
What disappointed me was the wasted potential for greatness in this movie.
Problem
It is not scary enough. This is some kind of fascist police state and nobody seems remotely scared of the aforementioned police. It really should have been a lot darker.
Solution
Have you ever seen the movie 'Fatherland'? It is a decent movie with one very important point plot, where the protagonist's ten year old son rats him out to the gestapo. That is scary. In V, we have ten year old girls saying 'bollocks' when the dear leader is talking on TV. She either should be too scared to say that(or at least told by her parents not to) or so conditioned by the party propaganda that she would be staring raptly at the telly.
The movie's Norsefire Party is obviously based on the Nazi party in Germany, especially in their rise to power. Both of them consolidated their power on the back of tragedies that they created/took advantage of(reichstag burning down/st mary's virus) and then blamed on their enemies. In light of the similarity of the rise to power for both parties, they should have followed through.
The scene in which the girl says bollocks when watching tv would have been much more powerful, if she was hanging on to every word in her girl guide's* uniform(party controlled), while her dad looks on uncomfortably over her shoulder. In Nazi Germany, the gestapo got most of their information from anonymous tips. Old men in bars, children, anyone would not have been so quick to run the dear leader down.
That leads nicely onto the last problem, the High Chancellor.
Pm
Bad casting. Hugo and Natalie were quite good. The High Chancellor was all wrong. Ok, so Norsefire is the Nazi Party but in England. So Sutler should be Hitler, but in England. That means he should be evil sure but he also should be charismatic, an awesome public speaker and he should connect with something deep inside the British psyche. Granted the italicised part would be hard to do in a movie but that should have been the attempt.
Ideally the audience should be drawn to him and repelled simutaneously. Then we could understand how we could fall into fascism. In this movie we are always on the side of the guy saying 'bollocks'. That is all well in good but at some point in the movie, even if only for a moment we should relate to Sutler. That would be chilling and something that would hit home.
Sn
Cast someone who can give the charachter some depth and hook the audience. Make him more working class also, more down to earth. We laugh at Hitler because he is German in the 1930s/40s. In other words we are not culturally attuned to him. Sutler should have been of this moment, passionate, vital with a hint of madness lurking under everything he says. He should have supported a football team, went down the pub, been one of the lads and thoroughly, thoroughly evil.
In short, he should have been the third major charachter in the movie, forming a triangle of Evey, V and Sutler. Detective Finch's role would have been reduced quite a bit.
As for who should have played him? That is a difficult question. Ian McShane of Deadwood/Lovejoy fame might have been a good bet. As long as it is someone who fits the above template then let him have at it.
So two major problems and what I would have done differently. I also would have cut several minutes from the origin stories but that is just a comic book movie gripe I have. I hate origin stories.
Please comment if you have any additional changes you would make or you disagree. Remember I took the time to write this because I liked the movie.
* girl guides are like girl scouts
