The short answer is yes. The long answer is yessssss. For the many uninitiated out there, Alan Moore is probably the best working comic book writer of the past 20 years. He does everything from super heroes to political drama. V for Vendetta lands somewhere in between. The graphic novel itself is at times a difficult read because its just so "heady" for lack of a better word. It really makes you think about the deeper subtext behind the main story.
As for the movie, let me just start out by saying it only increases my reverance for Alan Moore's work. The man is a visionary in the way Huxley or Orwell are/will be. His ultra-conservative/fascist England of the late 1990's (the near future to Moore and his co-writer/artist David Lloyd when writing the book in the early 80s) is such a relevant concept today. His extreme take on big government remind the sane living in America and across this world that government can be a dangerous thing if the people its govern stop thinking for themselves. The movie does a really great job of recapturing that sense from the graphic novel.
One distinction that is important to make is that the Wachowski's and James McTiegue really did very little to make this story more "current" besides throwing in Islamic extremism as the "enemy" of the day versus Soviets/Communists in the graphic novel. The fox news like "voice of england" is a slightly more exaggerated version of the "voice" in the novel. The intrusiveness of the government as far as surveillance was in the novel. The damning portrayal of the role the Church plays in government was straight form the novel as well...are all these things sounding familiar? The art design and many scenes in the movie are pretty much lifted directly from comic panels.
No matter what Mr. Moore says (he has gone on record as not caring for this adaptation and has taken his name off the project) this is very much his story, so the only credit that should go to the Wachowski's and McTiegue is for the final action scene (really the only one too) and adapting the novel into 2 and a half hour movie. The graphic novel itself spent a ton more time fleshing out the secondary characters, which made the whole effort feel more well rounded and satisfying, while the movie tended to drag a bit halfway through because they tried to force in all the relevant plot points of the novel at the expense of character development.
All in all, it was a pretty impressive effort. I think those unfamiliar with the comic book will probably be very surprised by this movie, which upon superficial could be seen as making a hero out of a terrorist. It really is far deeper than that. Even though Alan Moore has basically given up on Hollywood and will most likely take his name off any project of his that goes to screens, I think he should be happy to know that someone got it pretty close to right.
Now Watchmen is another story...I don't think that can ever be done right in movie form. Read it and you will figure out why quite quickly.
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