Despite Harry Knowles’ loving accolades for the movie and some truly amazing trailers, I’m still skeptical about the Wachowski Bros. ability to adapt Alan Moore’s “V For Vendetta” to the big screen. Recent screenings in Berlin seem to have left the critics split on the film’s quality, leading to the first time I recall seeing a critic publically arguing with another critic not named Ebert.

In Variety, Leslie Felperin finds the film disappointing in most areas:

“Thesping lineup offers an embarrassment of riches, which, unfortunately, the weak helming by [James] McTeigue rather squanders. Bambi-eyed [Natalie] Portman cries affectingly, and looks fetching with a shaved head, but her character is essentially passive and not especially interesting…”

“In the end, competent but bland craft contributions ensure pic looks less like sci-fi stalwarts “A Clockwork Orange” and “Fahrenheit 451″ and more like “Batman Begins” or “Van Helsing”…”

“Action sequences are serviceable but disappointing given the Wachowski pedigree…”

A tough review, but hardly a “slam,” which is what Wells calls it when he leaps to the film’s defense:

“She basically calls it turgid and tedious (”flat as a storyboard”) because she’s obviously decided it doesn’t do what good movies are supposed to do, which is grab you by the lapels and turn you around and send you out of the theatre saying, “Man, I just saw something!”"

“Trust me — “V for Vendetta” does this, so I’m having trouble figuring Felperin out. I don’t want to suppose anything but critics have bad days like anyone else so maybe she ate some bad sauerkraut.”

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