For example, in A Scanner Darkly or Children of Men the government is much more subtle in excercising it's complete control over the populace.

1984 was written in a time directly following some of the most grotesquely overbearing fascist dictatorships, it was fitting and appropriate for Orwell to use those images and ideas. In 2008 governments are far more clever in their control mechanisms, and far more subtle.

In V for Vendetta they used mostly Nazi imagery, I just think it was too much, in that it didn't challenge the viewer at all to support rebellion against a government that killed 130 000 of its own people for personal gain. I think it would be better if the government's excesses were just as persistent but less over-the-top, presenting the question to the viewer of "how far DOES a government have to go before I should consider rebelling against it?"

Here's the part where you stop reading unless you're particularly interested in things I have to say:

My friend went to a diner and roundtable discussion at a pro-business think tank called The Fraser Institute a few years ago. The roundtable was set up to discuss a fictional situation in which a manufacturing plant was set up in a poverty stricken area in a third world country, and to discuss the positives and benefits of use of foreign labour.

Fine.

The problem was that the fictional scenario was set up such that everybody benefitted, yet it was acting to serve as a reason why globalization generally benefitted the poor. My friend pointed out that no one in their right mind would argue that this fictional warehouse with great and safe working conditions and fair pay in a poverty stricken area would be a bad thing for anyone, but the question really should be "WHEN is using foreign labour okay, and when is it exploitative?"

I feel like the movie did the same thing as The Fraser Institute. No one in their right minds would think that the populace should have done anything other than rise up against this awful regime, but I think it could have been far greater a movie (given the climate at its release date and the desparate need for the provoking of debate) had they framed the argument against a less monstrous but still evil regime, forcing the viewers to actually think about when rebellion is good, and when it's bad.

I liked the movie, I just think it had the opportunity to be great.