What an unmitigated, limp and haphazard disaster of a film. Fans of Douglas Adams will be left cold if not insulted, and the sheer glory of the books is completely unrecognisable in this sad excuse for cinema. With the possible exception of Sam Rockwell Martin Freeman (see EDIT below) as Arthur Dent (who did his best, but still needed better direction), the rest of the cast were disastrous, unfeeling, predictable, ridiculous and wan. If I could erase the woman who played Trillian from my memory of the film, I would be relieved. Mos Def was entirely inappropriate as Ford, his comedic lines were lost and his attitude confusing. The creation of the new character played by John Malkovich was not just unnecessary, but frankly, embarrassing, and while I am usually a fan of Bill Nighy, as Slartibartfast he’s just wrong. Even Helen Mirren as the voice of Deep Thought was laughable – and not in a good way.
The best part of the film was seeing the original Marvin (from the television series) making a cameo appearance in a queue, and the image of Simon Jones (the original Arthur Dent from the radio series as well as the TV series) as the recording system from the legendary planet of Magrathea. Stephen Fry as the voice of the book was passable, and the opening sequence musical, ‘So Long and Thanks for All the Fish’, was visually interesting and curiously, rather Monty Python-esque. Plus it was nice to hear the original theme song played – though confusingly it was the music which heralded a kind of second set of opening titles when the book started up. Other than that I just wanted to walk out, but sat there, distressed and empty of the vital spirit that permeated the work of Douglas Adams.
Please. If you love Adams, spare yourself this wretched blight on the Hitchhikers landscape. Not because it doesn’t reproduce the original work, but because it vandalises it.
EDIT: Thanks to Lou for pointing out my error in identifying Sam Rockwell as Arthur Dent instead of Martin Freeman. I have no idea why I did that. Of course I meant Freeman, whose performances I’ve enjoyed in The Office, rather than Rockwell, who was extremely ordinary as Zaphod. Didn’t mind Rockwell in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but that was a while back now.
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… getting… conflicted messages… almost…
some friends… say they like it… big HG fans say they don’t… even the… BBC… gave it a… tame review… was dismayed… to read… the four page Internet review…
… have agreed… to see it with… a friend… on Monday…
light… fading… harder to… breathe… can’t type… in… complete… sentences…
[gasp]
Ever since I saw the publicity about the “new” HHGTTG I have had a sense of foreboding about the possible (nay, probable; actually, almost certain) bastardisation of one of my absolute favourite book/television series. I watched the trailer online which pretty much confirmed my suspicions. What happended to Zaphod’s two heads and the spaceship Heart Of Gold shaped like a sandshoe. I just can’t bring myself to see the entire film. Assuming that Douglas Adams is completely dead and not just spending a year dead for tax reasons, he must be spinning in his grave at the desecration of his classic.
And another thing. What about the……….*Phil is gently led away by Kris for a nice soothing cup of tea.
psst… Sam Rockwell plays Zaphod, nor Arthur. 😀
I’m still going to see it tomorrow.
I had my reservations when I first heard of the movie, yes. More so when Disney was mentioned. However, Douglas created John’s character specifically for the movie. He also added the romantic element between Arthur and Trillian, because he knew what movie audiences were going to be like. HE wrote this movie, Karey edited only lightly.The book is not the first incarnation of the guide, and NO rendition of it has ever been terribly true to the last. The movie came out, I am certain, exactly as Douglas intended. I don’t know what your deal is, but his fans will love this. Are you sure you love Adams? Because this is HIS work.
Yes, Phaedrus, I’m absolutely sure I love Adams’s work. I’m one of the few people responding to the film who actually has read the original radio plays, listened to the radio series and watched the television series as well as read the books. I’ve also read the Dirk Gently books and read the Meaning of Liff. I’m aware that Adams was writing this movie for several years before he died, and I’m aware that he was personally involved in developing the storyline. I also believe there are several elements of the realisation of the script that were absolutely meaningless, and detrimental to the earlier works.
I think if Adams had survived, a couple of things would have occurred. First of all, the film would not have come out nearly as early as it did. Adams was notorious for procrastinating on scripts and absolutely dreadful at meeting deadlines. It’s far more likely that it would have been shelved for another 5 years. Secondly, I think several aspects of casting and character realisation would have been changed. I strongly doubt that Adams would have wanted an insipid Trillian, an irrelevant Ford, or a Sony Marvin. I’m also convinced he would have wanted Zaphod to have worn his orange presidential sash and had the two heads visible at all times. And even if the Point Of View gun were an Adams invention, I think he would have made much better use of it than to shove it in last minute as a way of getting Arthur and Trillian together.
But even if I’m wrong on all of these things, it wouldn’t affect the poor quality of this work. It wouldn’t be the first time an author has savaged their works by converting to Hollywood format. Fortunately, however, it’s still possible to generally love the works of an author, even where they have clearly failed on one production.