A good movie, made from a great novel.

Rating: 6/10 (13 March 2010)

Before reading the V for Vendetta graphic novel, I considered the movie version to be excellent. After reading it...well, I still consider it to be a good movie, but I cannot really call it a good adaptation of the book.
I'm not one of those people who automatically considers the film version of any piece of any literature to be inferior by definition. And I realize that there are going to inevitably be some changes in the journey from page to screen. Just because thing are changed, does not mean that those changes have to have a negative impact on the core story. Some things work better on page than film, and vice-versa, and it can be a grave disservice to a story to not make those changes, solely for authenticity's sake.
My only problem with V for Vendetta, is that the changes made to the film version, had a negative impact on the movie. The characters were altered into less complex, whitewashed versions of themselves, and that was difficult to overlook. The plot also differs in a few fundamental ways, with several things being excised from the narrative. I can understand that a 132 minute movie cannot hold every detail of a moderately long novel, but there are some fairly weak additions to the movie that are not nearly as compelling as the material that they replaced.
The occasional focus on action sequences (and the slow-motion that was used liberally within them), I eventually accepted as just one of those inevitable changes, made to appeal to the general movie audience. And as much as I love Cat Power, "I Found a Reason" did not fit at all into the scene where it was used. Or the movie, as a whole.
These will be non-issues for viewers who have no experience with the novel, and I heartily recommend the movie to those people. But my recommendation is slightly more cautious to those familiar with the original version of Alan Moore's work. I can't imagine that your thoughts will differ much from mine, as you watch this.
The actors chosen to play the characters were good choices, for the most part. Sadler, Creedy, and especially Prothero, all spoke and looked like I imagined a living version of the character would. The rest of the cast was solid, as well. I had no problems with their performances, even when I occasionally had issues with the way their characters were interpreted and written. My sole qualm in this area was with Natalie Portman, but I couldn't tell if she didn't portray Evey well...or if she did, but the version of Evey that she was given just didn't connect with me.
I care little for the deeper political and philosophical issues that were the heart of the graphic novel, and I feel the same way about the ones presented in the movie version, so I won't comment on those things. I enjoyed reading V for Vendetta merely because it's an excellently told and illustrated story, and enough of that brilliance shines through in the movie version, for me to give it my approval.