Brilliant as a movie, Poor as an adaption

Rating: 5/10 (26 March 2006)

Brilliant as a movie, Poor as an adaption. No that is not entirely correct. Cinematicaly V was done brilliantly. The imagery, mood and sound throughout the flick was done with an artists touch and from fight scenes through to dramatic moments of personal interaction you get a feeling of looking at a canvas per frame.
That said..... As to how it works as a screen adaption of the greatest single literary work I have ever read? The director was sometimes perfectly spot on in ways that made me see frames from the story placed on celluloid and at other time million miles from the truth. I know in pretty much all movie adaptations of books and graphic novels there is always(though often I cant understand why) a change from the original story line. Unfortunately these changes were extraordinary.
The whole mood of the graphic novel was lost to a city where show girls were seen on television, where normal television stations existed. In the graphic novel there is no private television or radio. All you have is the Voice day in day out telling you that you are being watched there is no TV shows, action, drama or otherwise. This is a totalitarian state in the worst sense. People have no freedom, none.
Changing Eve's occupation is a major flaw because they change the person she is. The "joke" television scene. What is that? That is so far from the graphic novel as to be ludicrous. Why change V's conversation with Lady Justice. I would have put that to screen exactly as it was in the graphic novel, exactly, minus the girl.
While watching the movie from the opening scenes and V's verbal run I had to keep on reminding myself to watch it as a stand alone and not bring the graphic novel into it. Unfortunately thats hard when in some scenes the movie is poetically perfectly spot on. The prison cell scene left me breathless and then the producers and directors lose the plot on a large part of the movie.
To end I have to say that I was left feeling that the movie was made "friendly" kid friendly, parent friendly average Joe friendly. Unfortuanetaly this is not a friendly story changing the girl from being a prostitute to being a office worker does not do Alan Moores work justice and even though I don't know why he chose to remove his name from the movie, after the producers ask him to put his OK on it, I'm not surprised he chose to not associate himself with this sometimes brilliant sometimes poor "adaption" of a master piece in writing.
PS Three things. Why put the banana peel in the story and not tell the proper story of the banana peel? The girl with the glasses? From two frames in the graphic novel to a near major part in the story, WHAT?
and lastly I have lost respect for the Brothers Wichouski and there movie making talents I had expected better from them and was, sad to say, sorely disappointed.