Bad, bad, bad movie. Awful. I did like the Guide, though, but otherwise it was boring and they just changed too much. Plus what the hell was up with that zany cartoonish music? It's as if someone who loved Monty Python but didn't quite get why it's funny tried to make a Monty Python movie. HHGTG is funny, but it's not stupid, insult-your-intelligence funny.
Oh well, guess I should have expected it.
If you haven't already seen it -- seriously, don't bother.
I'm definitely glad there were changes made, while I don't think they were the best changes(would've been funnier with a different ending). But I didn't want to see a movie where I knew every single line or exactly what was going to happen next. The whole Vogsphere scene was quite good, and really made the Vogons into a cooler race than I ever thought, or at least more interesting
Will definitely have to pick up the DVD when it hits.
Gotta call bullshit on whoever said that Zaphod stole the show. That wasn't Zaphod. Zaphod was sly and funny. This guy was a slapstick drunkard. I mean seriously. Arthur had to remind him to be cool. What the hell is that?
I hope there's a directors cut that includes all the missing dialogue. The edits felt so sudden I can only hold out for there being one.
Hey I will say something good about it, it could've been much worse. The first half hour was great, if the rest of the movie was like that I would've loved it.
What I did like:
Marvin
Zaphod
Arthur
Trillian
Ford The Pot of Gold
Original TV Marvin
Original theme song when the guide first appears
Two spoilers:
The knitted characters scene.
The image of Douglas Adams being the final image in the movie.
Gotta call bullshit on whoever said that Zaphod stole the show. That wasn't Zaphod. Zaphod was sly and funny. This guy was a slapstick drunkard. I mean seriously. Arthur had to remind him to be cool. What the hell is that?
I hope there's a directors cut that includes all the missing dialogue. The edits felt so sudden I can only hold out for there being one.
Yeah, Zaphod wasn't supposed to be stupid, he was supposed to be COOL. He was so cool you could keep a side of meat in him for a week. He was so hip he couldn't see past his pelvis. But through all that, Zaphod's just zis guy, you know? But in the movie Zaphod was just an idiot.
I have to say that even if your thinking about seeing this in the slightest. Please support this movie rather than seeing XXX state of the union. It might not be the perfect work of Douglas Adams and its butchered to hell. BUT IT DESERVES your money not XXX. That is all continue your little girl games.
I have to say that even if your thinking about seeing this in the slightest. Please support this movie rather than seeing XXX state of the union. It might not be the perfect work of Douglas Adams and its butchered to hell. BUT IT DESERVES your money not XXX. That is all continue your little girl games.
i didnt enjoy it much. Started off well but then it just sort of became average....the acting was decent but really zaphod just becam annoying and well the romance plot was not believable. It did have some funny bits but a painfully average movie overall.
I'm not certain yet, but I think that may be the worst movie I've seen so far this calendar year. Dead silence from the two-thirds-full house throughout, except during the
stop-action sequence when Arthur pukes up yarn
. When the credits started rolling, a kid a couple of rows behind me screamed, "THAT'S NOT FUNNY!"
Pros:
+ Production design (esp. Vogons, Marvin, and the Guide animation)
+ Alan Rickman
Cons:
- Pretty much everything else, but most notably the complete lack of any sense of comic timing, the plotting that's bitched-up even by Douglas Adams's standards (the
Malkovich
subplot is just completely dropped, even though
Malkovich has one of Zaphod's heads, which is something you'd think would need resolving
) and the terrible, terrible musical score. You don't notice how important music is to a film until you hear a score that bad.
This film is a mess that is only made watchable by a few shining moments scattered throughout. The first 20 minutes or so are great, any of the segments narrated by the Hitchiker's guide are delightful, and there are some nice little touches that are fantastic
(for example, the part where all the characters become yarn and the scenes with the little crab dudes)
.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough of these moments. The rest of the film is dull.
I didn't care for some of the changes, but I thought it was entertaining enough. Some of the whining I've seen (more on other forums than here, though) is pretty excessive. That said:
ManaByte said:
Spoiler:
The rebuild Earth and DO NOT dismantle it and everything on the planet is reset to before the Vorgons destroy it. SUPER HAPPY ENDING. FUCK YOU DISNEY.
Why do the hardcore fanboys seem to be whining so much about the romance aspect, and not about that? A far worse change, in my opinion.
Also, Mana, how do you know which changes were made by Kirkpatrick? I'd definitely like to see a comparison of the final script with Adams' original version.
I just got back from seeing the film, and over all, I'm pretty disappointed. It did start off well, and I setled in for nice interpretation of the book. But about halfway through, it just swerved off on a differet course, that barely resembled the Douglas Adams story.
Sure, there were definitly nods to the fanboy in all of us, but too much of the heart of the story got ripped out. The kept going on about the towels, but didn't really say why the towel was so important. I mean, it's only the most useful item in the Universe. They needed more of the interludes from the Guide, like in the old BBC TV series, and someone please give Zaphod his balls back. The second half of the film is a mess, with only a few quality moments. It's bad when I find myself laughing a lot more at the beginning then I do at the end.
Spoilers, but I think we should be able to talk about the movie without the tags now, right?
Yeah, I agree, this movie started well but is pretty much a mess. The whole intro was great, and everything a good kind of quirky to start. But once they got to the ship it just didn't work. There's a few things to admire here and there. And the Zaphod character.. *sigh* Someone said in the book he's supposed to be a sly kind of cool, and I tried to imagine his lines said by a sly cool character. They work a LOT better that way if you know the guy's got a brain behind his insanity, that he chooses to ignore, given it wouldn't do any good in his situation. Then he'd have established how he's just trying to have fun, and the girl and his relationship would have made more sense.. If it was playful fun that they shared a love for. The rivalry between Arthur and him would have been a lot funnier too. He just wasn't a likeable character, no matter how much effort he threw into it. It was a misguided effort. That role called for a great actor to hit those right marks. Johnny Depp for example would have been perfect.
Overall, I liked the main cast minus Zaphod, but there was no chemistry between them, simply for that missing link. Also, after the shocking, cool start, the plot and vision of the story just didn't work that well. The mice were bleh, rebuilt earth seemed stupid, some parts just seemed pointless. There was simply a few rare good parts. The crabs I liked, the yarn, mine field.. Oh, and one part I liked. The point of view gun, where Trillian keeps hitting Zaphod. Him giving the explanation, and her showing the emotion. That was cool. Still could have been better with a better Zaphod. Considering he hates getting serious, though he can. Then he's forced to, and his exuberance for sillyness comes down, to understand her. An underlying heart, to a fun movie, with better timing for the humor is what this movie needs. But speaking on what the actual movie was, weak weak ending though. I was like "hmm, another failed scene... gonna end it on that?"
Oh, but Zooey Deschanel was beautiful. Another shower scene, Rawk!
I didn't care for some of the changes, but I thought it was entertaining enough. Some of the whining I've seen (more on other forums than here, though) is pretty excessive. That said:
Why do the hardcore fanboys seem to be whining so much about the romance aspect, and not about that? A far worse change, in my opinion.
Also, Mana, how do you know which changes were made by Kirkpatrick? I'd definitely like to see a comparison of the final script with Adams' original version.
From what I've heard the romance (including the sidetrack to Vogsphere) and retarded ending is Kirpatrick and the result of Disney basically telling him to put in a romance and happy ending or they would pull all funding from the movie.
The point of view gun definitely feels like an Adams creation.
The ending is like making a LOTR movie and NOT destroying the Ring at the end.
Edit: Also apparently most of the missing dialog from the movie was apparently filmed (and in some early test screenings), but Disney apparently told them to edit the movie down to a specific running time so they could slap an extra trailer or two on the print (such as CHICKEN LITTLE and HERBIE).
Dude, that was the worst scene in the whole movie. It was uninteresting, the lines were poorly written as well as poorly delivered, and it felt too much like exposition. "The one guy you really care about, you may have blown it with..." Give me a fucking break.
Watched it earlier today with my sister. I've read all the books and she's completely new to them. Somehow we both ended up enjoying it.
I'd agree that it starts off really strong and then loses steam but overall it's a decent flick. Like the original poster, I really liked Sam Rockwell's Zaphod and I think it's pretty close to how I pictured him in the book (the way he acted, not actual looks).
Just my two cents. I think some of you are way too fanboy for your own good. You'll never like any kind of movie adaptation of a comic or book or any other geek cult thing that's remade for public consumption.
I saw it tonight. As a fan of the books, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't that great. It definitely was Hollywoodtized a bit too much. But I thought a lot about it was well done. It's not as good as the BBC series, but it was a fun movie. I missed the first 10-15 minutes because my friend and I stupidly went into the wrong theatre by accident. It's too bad that Douglas Adams wasn't alive to help with this movie because it probably would have turned out a lot better with him more heavily involved.
I'm all about the first hallf hour or so of this movie. Loved the beginning musical number, the awesome music from the TV show, and the faithfulness to the book.
The rest was entertaining, but seemed a little corny. Went way downhilll, but still good. Zaphod's second head was downright obnoxious. Forced, added love story sucks, as did cheesy ending.
Mos Def was suprisingly the best character in the movie.
Seeing as how when H2G2 jumps from medium to medium, it always changes, I'm not going to harp on differences from the books. Quite frankly, neither should the rest of you.
As a standalone movie, it touches on all of the important things that make Hitchhiker Hitchhiker. I'm thankful
the mice are still around, I went in expecting that the new character, Humma, replaced them
, and I didn't find the Guide to be too intrusive.
The biggest hurdle was taking a series that relies very heavily on narrative and exposition just as much as it does dialogue and packing about 200 pages of it into a 2 hour movie. Should it have been longer to flesh out some details? Yeah, but even at 1:50, it does pretty well. I'm hoping for a director's cut on DVD.
I'm kinda upset that we didn't see more of
Zaphod stealing the Heart of Gold
, but hey, whatever. At least the fate of two certain missiles remained intact.
FYI, the movie got applause at the end. And the crowd in the theater was your average Saturday night mix. I think that's a good sign.
i didnt enjoy it as much as i thought i would. the romance did seem forced, and i did expect some more jokes. zaphod made the movie though, he was pretty much as i pictured...basically a rockstar. though halfway through the movie he becomes retarded (which doesnt happen in the book) so that was another negative point for me. and i thought the actor for arthur dent was terrible. he was bland as hell. and mos def wasnt very good as ford prefect either. trillian was really cute and great, and marvin was fantastic, though they could have emphasized a bit more on him.
The biggest hurdle was taking a series that relies very heavily on narrative and exposition just as much as it does dialogue and packing about 200 pages of it into a 2 hour movie. Should it have been longer to flesh out some details? Yeah, but even at 1:50, it does pretty well. I'm hoping for a director's cut on DVD.
I really like Arthur's vomit scene. I'm not sure what about though, it's a simple enough bit, but...just something about how it played out made me laugh hard.
The first thirty minutes or so were awesome. The middle section, where they try really hard to give the movie a plot, sagged for me. The last third was pretty good, Magrathea sequence especially. And I really liked the
rebuilt earth.
Anyway, I don't see what is so terrible about the ending, mawkish love story aside.
So overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. But I'm still disappointed. I could have done with less chaos and noise, and more of the dry Adams wit.
Not a bad movie by any means, and it does so much right. So why can't I shake the feeling that I'm unsatisfied?
I thought all the characters were perfectly portrayed, with standout performances by Rockwell, Deschanel, Def, and whoever played Slartibartfast. I loved Slartibartfast. And I agree with most people in this thread that Zaphod was very good. His being more kooky than cool throughout most the movie was fine with me, and didn't seem to deviate from his literary roots at all (he was missing half his brain for crying out loud!). I didn't like the love scenes very much, but I can look past them.
Overall, I was slightly disappointed, but I still enjoyed the movie a great deal. I really hope they make the rest of the series. I can see the sequels surpassing this one in every aspect, and some very funny movies being made.
yeah slartibartfast was cool as well, but that dude is cool in every movie. he was the badass vampire boss in underworld.
i missed the babel fish being used as the proof of god's existance bit as well, and jinnyn tonix...so many missed jokes.
Mos Def was definitely the best thing in it, though. Pretty much exactly how imagined Ford. But, as mentioned, it completely fell apart at the seams by the time the first half was over. Guide slowly faded into background noise, a shitty romance gripped the film and needless, cliche, entirely unimaginative exposition took its place. Even Marvin's neverending harpin' about his depression got old by the end, something I didn't think was possible. Voiced as well as could be by Alan Rickman, I suppose.
It could have been worse, admittedly, and there was some things definitely worth mentioning, so it's not totally unsalvageable. But in the end, imho the bad outweighed the good. **/****.
I enjoyed it. It captured the spirit of the book very well for the most part. Only things I didn't like:
Romance storyline
Actor playing Trillian was crap
At times too chaotic, overwhelmingly so
Sometimes I wondered how well people who hadn't read the book would understand what was going on
But mostly it was very enjoyable. Some of it was genius, the opening sequence was superb, the Heart of Gold couldn't have been done better and most of the characters were spot on. Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast :lol
Short version: It was good, if not as great as I would have liked.
"You mean it?"
Longer review: No, seriously, I thought it was pretty damn good.
I'm not sure if it was more helpful to be a fan of the books (so you'd have a better idea of the original's admittedly vague plot) or to go in cold (so you had no expectations). As a fan, I generally liked it quite a bit, though there were moments where gags were set up and then much of the punchline was inexplicably cut. This wasn't a dealbreaker or anything, but it was a bit odd. Here's hoping for a director's cut at some point.
Full points to the creators for giving the film terrific visual style. The look of the film wasn't anything like I imagined when listening to and/or reading the earlier incarnations, but in a pleasantly suprising sort of way; it's always nice to see someone else's vision of how an adaptation should look, particularly when their vision doesn't suck. In particular, the Guide was absolutely incredible and, like everyone else,
I loved the yarn gag
. And, the tone is lighthearted enough that, even when the visuals aren't quite working
say, Zaphod's head
or are a tad cheesy, you can just roll with it and let them slide.
Full points also for excellent casting. I can see where Sam Rockwell's Zaphod might grate on folks, but I personally thought it was a hoot. The only drawback seems to be that they asked Mos Def to tone Ford down somewhat to counterbalance Zaphod being all over the place. As a result, Def tends to mumble his lines somewhat - I kept wishing he'd just be a bit more brash, but otherwise he does a fine job. I'd never seen Martin Freeman in anything, but he completely nails poor Arthur Dent. However, my favorite of the main cast was definately Zooey Deschanel's Trillian; not only is she a near-infinite improvement over the TV Trillian, but she's devestatingly cute to boot. Okay, so I'm shallow. The rest of the cast also did a fine job, particularly Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, and the voice actors; Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman live up to the original Guide and Marvin voices admirably, and I was terribly amused to realize that Deep Thought was being played by Helen Miran.
Gonna be shitting knuckles tonight!
Things aren't so hot as far as the plot goes...but, frankly, it's not as if the original source material was great shakes in that department either. The movie (and possibly the rest of the series) is really best enjoyed as a series of pleasant moments rather than an intricately constructed whole. This isn't to say that I wouldn't have liked to have had a really tight resolution, but I'm happy to live with what we got.
The whole Humma Kavula bit is a pretty good example. He shows up as a nice visual but for no really great reason and vanishes from the plot entirely. But, that's okay - he's the reason they go find the gun, which helps end the movie and has some nice gags (and even a bit of characterization, forced as it may be) thrown in. If we get a sequel, Malkovich can show up to be vaguely menacing again when Zaphod goes to retrieve his head.
The most forced part of the movie was easily the romance, but I was generally content to just roll with it. It's the sort of thing that I can see being theoretically done well, but that in practice just didn't quite work. Eh. I can live with it.
The direction wasn't everything I could have asked for, either. As I expect from my hot-shot-music-video-directors-working-on-their-first-feature-film it looked fantastic, but the pacing was pretty wonky at times. Again, not deal breakingly so, but it did cause chunks of the flick to fall flat. I'd be perfectly pleased to see Garth Jennings return to do Restaurant at the End of the Universe, as I figure by that point he'll have a bit more experience under his belt and the film will have done well enough for the producers to be a bit more hands-off and not calling Jennings up at 4am yelling about how they'll have him castrated if he doesn't add romance, or that he must make two minutes worth of cuts in the talky bits to squeeze in a couple more trailers. At least, that's the impression I got from Manabyte...
"Unclench, fanboy!"
Oh, and the soundtrack was generally competant and inoffensive...with the exception of the opening number, "So Long And Thanks For All The Fish" which was absolutely hysterical. I sat there agape with joy as a friend next to me declared the first four minutes of the film worth the price of admission alone. Also, be sure to check out the "Vote Beeblebrox" video. The visuals aren't earth shattering, but the song is a hoot and a half.
So...is this film as laugh-out-loud funny as many of the original Hitchhiker's incarnations? Not quite, unfortunatly. That said, it's still tremendous fun, even when it's wandering around near the middle of the movie and you're thinking, "Gosh, they could stand to have another Guide entry pop up right about now." The humor comes off as being more pleasant than hysterical, but that's okay - with visuals that lush, I'm content to sit back and enjoy pleasant for a while.
On a final note, of all the nice touches and in-jokes scattered throughout the film (I particularly liked Simon Jones as Magrathea's holographic answering machine), my favorite was
when the second Earth was activated. The scenes of life awakening reminded me of Adams' Last Chance To See, which is probably the most entertaining conservationalist manifesto you'll ever read. Of all the moments in the film that paid homage to Adams, that scene (intentional or otherwise) was my favorite.
Now to go back to listening to "Journey of the Sorcerer" repeatedly.
"Your death may be monitored for training purposes."
That was a great line and it fit the HGttG humor well. I think those pics you posted illustrate nicely why I liked Sam Rockwell's Zaphod. I think he did a great job contrary to the flack he's getting in this thread.
I never read the books before and I just read book 1 in the last 2 days that's why I'm curious. I'm going to start on book #2 soon but don't know if I need to read it before seeing the movie.
Haven't read the books before, but this was pretty alright. A bit overdone and typical hollywood, but very decent serving of comedy compared to the kind of tripe that can be released normally.
