Very long, Very obvious, very verbose, very silly, very tedious

Rating: 1/10 (27 August 2006)

When you have a movie with this much talk in it and one of the main talkers wears a mask the whole time you court silliness. Fans of Bad CGI will wow at the bad explosion that kicks things off. Sure the "not" current political and social figures being made fun of or killed I guess is fun on some level for those who feel powerless to change things they don't like about this world but can vote highly for a movie that is sort of about current issues here and feel vindicated.
Could well be that the graphic novels work but the film totally grinds to a halt about halfway in and never recovers. I had been warned going in that it wasn't an action film. Okay no problem there, though there is enough action and of a type of action to keep it from being taken to seriously and way way way way way too much talk talk talk talk talk talk talk to be engaging mentally. Ideas if repeated many many times do not become deeper.
Character motivation is likewise repeated at every key moment that you might have forgotten. This is a movie that is concerned it's too smart for you dummies in the audience. In its arrogance it forgets to be much good or have any narrative drive.
Characters on several occasions get magically kidnapped to keep the story going, a protracted flashback to a subplot right in the middle is really the time to turn it off.
A misfire, good intentions I guess, aren't really deeply thought out nor is anything in this ultimately. The subversion here just seems kind of childish. The bombers are our friends? Gutsy premise but they don't pull it off. Silly Portman underwear sequences belong in another movie perhaps one more entertaining and sure of itself than this ultimate mess.
This will all seem really odd in future years, for now it's just for the armchair crowd who can't be bothered to really study current events but can, I guess, get some vicarious thrill from this. I don't mean to knock fans, only to say if you really think about this it won't hold up. I gave it a chance but felt ultimately angry for bothering.