Postby capt_weasle » 2010.06.05 (05:49)
While this is by far most certainly NOT the shittiest movie in the world, I must express my discontent with The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. I was hanging out in Portland and stumbled across Powell's City of Books (<333333) so I decided to finally pick up a copy of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, because I would have otherwise lived a thoroughly depressing life without having read it. The day after I finished it (though I'm only halfway through the second book - I got an edition with all five novels) I watched the movie and, well, bleh. While I understand that the new additions to the story and the major changes in plot were a nod to how none of the previous books, TV series, and radio shows were consistent with each other, I didn't like how they treated several of the characters and the pacing of the story in general. I would think that anyone who had not read the book and watched this movie would be utterly lost, as many of the key moments and phrases that shone so brightly and fit so perfectly in the book were kind of crammed in random spots, which made them seem more of allusions to the book rather than punchlines that made sense given the context they were in during the movie. Sam Rockwell's portrayal of Zaphod was awful, and threw all of the subtle intellect and mischievousness of the character out the window and made him to be a complete idiot. While in the novels Zaphod is by no means the most coherent or educated guy around, there is a subtle, underlying notion that he knows what he's doing and his importance to the story; however, in the movie he's just stupid (also I didn't like how they dealt with his two heads, but that's just me). I must give praise to it, though, because Garth Jennings absolutely nailed Marvin, Arthur Dent, the Vogons in general, and the Heart of Gold's Improbability Drive (I loved the scene where they were all knitted toys). I also absolutely adored how the actual Guide itself was treated, with the animations in the book and the narration by Stephen Fry being quite excellent. Most of my other issues with the movie are just miffs about visuals, scene layouts, and pacing, because I'm a film major and I like things my way. I didn't like how the Heart of Gold actually looked (and I was at first uncomfortable with how they treated the sighing doors but I warmed up to it), how Deep Thought looked, and how they spent very little time on Magrathea (I desperately wanted to see the scene where they were looking through the planet catalog). Zooey Deschanel was also a strange choice for Trillian, and I'm not sure I liked her in the movie, and I'm still on the fence as to whether I liked Ford Prefect in the movie. On one hand, he got the awkwardness of the character very well, but he was just a little too bland for my tastes. The movie certainly had its moments, though, and the opening sequence was brilliant.
"How happy is the blameless Vestal's lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot: Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each prayer accepted, and each wish resign'd" ~ Alexander Pope
"Boredom is not an appropriate response to exploding cars" ~ Hugh Laurie
