I've found a VLC clone in the Italian App Store and seems free... Maybe you can just try and use it until the official one will be released... Just search for VLC and scroll until you found a free app with a green and white icon. Maybe also in the US App Store is available....
You should transfer the files using iTunes with VLC opened. Actually there is a bug in VLC that is not checking the availability of new files if they were transferred when VLC was not running.