It's OK, certainly not an 8.2

Rating: 6/10 (23 March 2006)

I saw V for Vendetta the other night and thought it was OK, It's nowhere near the 8.2 rating that the fanbois have currently given it.
I won't pick holes with the script and it's deviations from the Graphic Novel. I understand that the media is different and the story should be told in different ways, I'll just comment directly on the film.
Some of the acting was good, some not so. The script jumped around a lot, leaving lots of unanswered holes (a Warchowski Brother trademark I think). Of the 5 of us who went in together, the 3 who had not read Alan Moores graphic novel came out looking bemused asking what was going on there questions. For the first few lines delivered by V, he was almost incomprehensible. Mostly I think V came across as too pantomime, and nowhere near sinister enough, this could been helped by much better direction and camera work. Natalie Portman did a good job in places, but I think was found a bit lacking in places (torture scenes and revelations), and she obviously needed more time with a voice coach for her accent.
Parts of the plot are highly dubious, just where did V get thousands of masks from with no-one knowing, what happened to all those "Revolutionaries" when the train was sent in? What do the masses have to look to at the end? How does V get into all those secure places in such a paranoid country? I think that the pace of the film media doesn't lend itself particularly well to a story spanning a year, and this lead to problems in the film.
All in all, I did quite enjoy the film, and I would sit through it again. I'm glad I kind of knew the plot before I went in (through reading the novel years ago) as I think it helped gloss over the now what's going on bits.
Roll on the special, extended, directors cut - Now approved by Alan Moore.... I wish :)