Prepare to be disappointed. I think I chuckled about 3 times during the entire movie, but I didn't really laugh once. It was a big let down for me, but then movies from great books usually are. The best thing to come from seeing it is that I really want to read the books again.
One of my favorite characters, Marvin was poorly developed.
Dent was way too likeable (and witty, adds Sou).
The contrived romances weren't needed and didn't add anything of value.
I think the main problem for me was that it just wasn't funny.
Now, after reading this, I hope your expectations are reduced to the point where you can enjoy the film
My sister has invited me to go today (Sunday). We are bringing our towels. I'm trying not to panic, but I still feel like shit from a cold+, so I might have to flake out.
Well, I laughed several times. I found it funny. Some tips:
Don't constantly compare it to the book, enjoy it for itself
If you haven't read the book, however, it will appear as a trainwreck (much likes the books) so don't go see it.
Basically, you need the background of being a fan, but can't expect it to be the book.
Here's my post about it I made at IIb, since I'm a lazy typist.
I saw it the other night. I thought it was good, but not great. I really liked the books, although it's been so long since I read them that I was bit fuzzy on when the movie wasn't following the book's plot line.
I felt like it was a good movie for someone that was an Adams fan, although it seemed to me that the movie would lose some it's humor if you hadn't read the books. I would have enjoyed the actual beginning of the book rather than the dolphin scene, and I wish they would have covered the Babel fish better.
I thought it was fun to see the book come to life on the screen and I really enjoyed the factory and earth mark II scenes. Also, the one thing I can really say is the movie itself is unique. How often does one get to see sci-fi satire and comedy rolled into one? I thought it was refreshing in that it was new and different. It seems hard to find a truly unique film like that anymore especially in our age of sequels.
My girlfriend went with me, and although she's never read the books, she liked the film, perhaps better than I did. Today she picked up the book at the library. There wasn't too much open laughter in the audience during the film (the theater I was in wasn't even at half capacity) but there was some. Once the movie let out, it was somewhat quiet among the crowd, and I got the sense the audience wasn't sure if they liked it or not. /shrug
All in all I give it a '6' out of '10', with '1' being "Hmmm, I could have constructively used this time to get my root canal." and '10' being "Damn now I need a cigarette! When does this shit come out on video?"
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Here's a disjointed review I wrote about it yesterday on another forum. I had never read the books, so I came with no bias in that regard.
quote:Originally posted by XXXXX Just back from seeing it.
My one word summary is "unsatisfying".
Yeah, I saw it last night too. I agree with your summary, although I would qualify mine with "mildly." I might add "35mm acid trip" somewhere in there too. Seeing this stone cold sober might be a liability to the whole experience.
I thoroughly enjoyed it as a whole, but it was not one of my greatest movie-going thrills. Part of my disappointment may lie in my observation that I saw it with someone who doesn't quite get the absurdist viewpoint like I think many here do. I have to say that not many persons I know in real life do appreciate this stuff, so many of my favorite films go unnoticed or unloved by my friends and family. Pity. They're out of step, not me.
I saw and can review this film as a rank newbie in all things h2g2. Although I'm the right age for it, I missed reading the books in college (although I remember seeing them in bookstores and that there was something of a rage for them at the time). I'm American, so I missed the radio series and the TV series. I even missed the towel.
Thus, before last year I knew nothing of h2g2 except that it was absurdist humor and that "42" meant something.
In the past couple of weeks I have done a bit of reading about h2g2 and Douglas Adams. I felt like I had a grasp of the idea and feel for it going in. I read lots of comparisons to some of Adams' inspirations, like Monty Python, Jonathan Swift, and Pink Floyd (no joke; apparently Adams was a friend of David Gilmour and even played on stage with Floyd at a show once). My grasp was pretty accurate, based on what I saw in the film.
Visually, it is similar to Terry Gilliam's style, although not as dark. It also bears a remarkable resemblance to Jean Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, and I've even read a comment that it is a very British version of that style. At any rate, the Vogons look straight out of the makeup unit of the Fifth Element, and that's a good thing. Many of the sets looked as if they could have come from Star Wars or A.I.
I could tell from the frenetic pace and densely packed material that the books must be a treasure trove of brilliant insight and commentary. Unfortunately, in the film it comes at the viewer too fast for much of it to be noticed, much less for it to be digested properly.
I loved the Britishness of this film, although I recognize it is partly Americanized. Terry Gilliam, although an American, did a wonderful job of capturing the same kind of essential Britishness I like in his classic Time Bandits (still one of my favorite all-time films after about 15 viewings). The filmmakers of h2g2 are obviously Gilliam fans. This kind of British-American-British recursion is something I think Adams would find funny were he still with us. Of course, he probably did, as he was friends with Python and even worked with Graham Chapman early in his writing career.
As for the cast, everyone just shut up about Mos Def's being black being an issue. It isn't. He was superb. I had heard of the guy before and knew who he was, but I had never seen any of his previous films or heard any of his music; I had no preconceptions about him. He was a joy to watch and stole many of the scenes he's in. Martin Freeman is perfect as Arthur Dent, as is Bill Nighy for Slartibartfast. Alan Rickman does well as the voice of Marvin, and Zooey Deschanel is good too, although I suspect it's mostly because she's so nice to look at and has a cute voice too. Helen Mirren must be a fan, as she turns up as the voice of Deep Thought, and Jason Schwartzman appears for a brief, three second cameo in a commercial. You'll miss it if you don't know him. Sam Rockwell deserves a lot of praise and credit for his portrayal of Zaphod Beeblebrox. It's fun and obnoxious without being too irritating or over-the-top.
As I write this, it occurs to me that perhaps the film feels more like a celebration of the cast and crews' and filmmakers' love for the material than a film about the material itself. As I haven't read the books, I can only speculate, but it does seem like a tribute to the books, rather than a literal cinematic translation of them. Of course, I recognize that Adams' original work began as a radio series, only half finished, which means the books themselves are adaptations.
I think this will be a great film for a DVD collection, as it probably needs to be seen again and again to get everything, or even half of it, that comes at you. Also, there are lots of quotable lines in the film, and repeat viewings would help me remember more of them.
CH
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Here's my post about it I made at IIb, since I'm a lazy typist.
I saw it the other night. I thought it was good, but not great. I really liked the books, although it's been so long since I read them that I was bit fuzzy on when the movie wasn't following the book's plot line.
IIRC, it was from the time they reached the John Malcovich planet through the act with them on Deep Thought's planet. None of that stuff, including the point-of-view gun, was in any of the books (although possibly it was on the records or TV show or something). The only things from that act that were in the book were the sperm whale and the petunias. Then the act with the planet factory is from the book, but the scenes on Earth Mark II were totally different.
What I didn't like:
I really could have done without the dolphin song opening.
I was also severely let down by the planet factory. I agree that it would be a tall order to get something on film that even remotely resembled the description in the book, but I still think they could have done better than they did. The effects were bitchin', I'll give it that. But the dramatic music and Arthur's weeping just did not fit what I was actually seeing on the screen. I kept thinking, "Arthur, if you think this is cool, you should read the book!" Haha!
[spoiler=It really bothered me that...]The dolphins came back at the end.[/spoiler]
What I liked:
The Heart of Gold was just awesome to behold! What a gorgeous ship.
Don't you think that Marvin's head looked like the Heart of Gold when it had that giant hole blown out the back of it? I wonder if that was intentional.
I like the part where they all turn to yarn and then Arthur pukes. Heehee!
I'm sure there was more that I liked, but I can't come up with it right now, so they must not have been very memorable. In all, I'm glad I saw the movie once, I don't want my money back, but I probably won't buy the DVD.
Edit:
I remember! This part had me laughing my ass off. It was the part near the beginning when the Vogon fleet was getting ready to destroy the earth, and they keep pulling back and pulling back with that dramatic music. That could have gone on for another five minutes and I would have still been enjoying myself. That's very much a Family Guy style joke where they stay with the joke for a LONG time after the initial punch. teehee!
Edit2: That joke is also very much like in The Emperor's New Groove where they pull back so far they are on that little bug who is eating the leaves. "What's with the bug?" teeheehee!
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Last edited by Ensign Steve; 05-01-2005 at 10:04 PM.
Reason: D'oh! How could I forget the best part?!
I feel the same as most here, unsatisfied. It was good, but not great; not a "laugh-a-minute" film. However, there were many memorable moments in the film.
[spoiler=So Long and Thanks For All the Fish]The entire Adams short story "So Long and Thanks For All the Fish." was covered in the first two minutes of the film. It was a half a damn book in print.[/spoiler]
I loved it when they turned into yarn dolls. Even the Infinite Probability Drive button was made out of yarn. On that subject, the book's description the Infinite Probability Drive was so in depth and involved, yet nearly completely washed over in the film.
The Heart of Gold's computer, so entertaining in the book, was barely there in the film.
Marvin the Paranoid Android's character was totally undeveloped in the film, he came off as Marvin the Depressed Robot instead.
[spoiler=Zaphod Beeblebrox]Galaxy President Zaphod Beeblebrox's voice and mannerism are very reminiscent of a certain, perhaps, current President of the United States, with the brashness of the preceding POTUS.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=The Great Handkerchief Spoiler]When a church service concludes with "Ah-choo! Bless you!", you've just got to laugh.[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Vogon Spoiler]I loved it when Marvin shot the inaccurate marksmen, the Vogons, with the point-of-view gun and they all keeled over saying "I'm so depressed."[/spoiler]
[spoiler=Point-of-View Gun]Loved Trillian's line: It has no effect on me, I'm already a woman.[/spoiler]
You don't suppose they left out the elaboration on the Babelfish because of controversy over evolution, do you? God didn't vanish in a puff of logic in the film either.
But, all in all, I liked the film. I give it 3 stars out of 4 and a big thumbs up.
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[spoiler=Vogon Spoiler]I loved it when Marvin shot the inaccurate marksmen, the Vogons, with the point-of-view gun and they all keeled over saying "I'm so depressed."[/spoiler]
[spoiler=not really a spoiler]There was a bit in one of the books where he disables a ship where they are all being held prisoner (was it a Vogon ship?) by talking to it and depressing it. Similar, I guess. [/spoiler]
God didn't vanish in a puff of logic in the film either.
IMO, I thought they did actually cover this well with the entry in the Hitchhiker's Guide. [spoiler=Where/how it was done]The progression of book titles about God by the publisher [/spoiler] does cause God to vanish in a puff of logic; perhaps not stated in the same words. But, at the showing I attended in Southern California Canyon Country, that bit got a big laugh from the audience.
As with many satirical and comedic movies, I think there are probably quite a few bits in the movie that go by quickly and might be appreciated during a second go around. I was at first taken aback by the opening musical number with the dolphins, but warmed up to it as I realized how many goofball things they did with it using stock type images of dolphins in amusement park performances. I definitely need to see that song again to pick up a few more of those bits.
For a movie, representing a book with a great deal of wacky concepts, I stand by it's ability to cover quite a few of them adapted to the medium of film. I particularly liked how they represented the Guide itself:
as a hypertexted interactive electronic book with a distinctive voice-over and some pretty sharp (and hilarious) animation.
With the book in this format, I believe they were able to keep the movie on a linear format with the plot and still pursue so many of the delightful tangents provided in the book.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been represented in many different formats: radio play, tv show, book, now movie. I expected the movie to have its own take on the various concepts from all of those with no chance of being able to capture all of them. I was both satisfied and very entertained. Like warrenly, I'd give it a 3 out of 4 and a big thumbs up.
[spoiler=Marvin]Using Alan Rickman worked for me and added quite a bit to the character -- though maybe in a way that was cheating. The surly, cynical character reminded me of the character Rickman played so well in the movie Galaxy Guest. Maybe that's a bad thing for some people, but it cracked me the hell up.[/spoiler]
I think I want to see it again. No, I think I WILL see it again. My wife, daughter and I have been talking about it ever since we saw it Saturday afternoon. There was more there than I thought.
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Sleep - the most beautiful experience in life - except drink.--W.C. Fields
[spoiler=hmmph]Don't make me take out the gimp excuse with which to slap you again, sir! 'Cuz I'll do it, I will. And boy oh boy, then you'll be sorry. [/spoiler]
Come to think of it, a spoof of a sci fi spoof might be a great project for Michael Guest and his improv crew. Good thinking, JoeP!
I finally watched this last week while visiting with several of my nieces and nephews. I haven't read the books but I thought the movie was entertaining. It reminded me a bit of Fifth Element and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eigth Dimension. I'm glad I finally know what "So long, and thanks for all the fish" and "42" mean, since I've heard them both repeatedly over the years. It's also interesting to know where the Babelfish translation website got it's name.
Perhaps I'll read the book some day, but it's not likely. I just don't read books much anymore.
Any particluar reason why not? Anyway, I highly recommend them...so much fun.
I just can't get into books anymore. I think it's a combination of decreased attention span and addiction to reading posts, articles and short essays on the Internet. I'm definitely interested in this book now, though.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
[/spoiler]
I missed that. Was that the sequel to Galaxy Quest?
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