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The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
When I was a kid, I read and adored these books (all 3 of them at the time). I was also heavily into the original Infocom text adventure version of the story — in fact, it was the only Infocom game I ever solved completely without any hints (though I did get stuck for several months at the Babel fish part!) I loved the series enough that I even bought the original British miniseries, sight unseen, on DVD when it was released. And when I finally got around to watching it, I found that I didn't really enjoy it that much.
So when I heard that the long rumored and awaited feature length movie was about to come out, I viewed the event with some trepidation. I recognize that Douglas Adams had already worked out a screenplay which was different from the books, so I wasn't expecting a perfect match, but was at least hoping for some of the offbeat charm of the originals.
Having seen the movie, I have to say that it was a mixed success. I hadn't read the books in quite a while, so as I sat there watching the big budget special effects and the insanely-paced plot whizz by, I couldn't help but imagine what this movie must look like to someone who didn't know the books at all. Which is to say, they would be mightily confused, and would conclude that the movie was just a horrendous mess of random adventures in a surreal, slightly exaggerated way.
Thinking back on the books, I have to say that's a pretty accurate assessment.
I would say that the movie's main problem is that it's a little too faithful to the spirit of the books, and not altered enough to provide a coherent plotline. As a fan, I certainly thought they did a bang-up job recreating a lot of the mixed-up universe. The Guide itself, voiced by Stephen Fry and accompanied by wonderful little animations, was spot-on, though I wish they had included a few more entries. I also thought Alan Rickman did an excellent job of voicing Marvin. The Vogons were very well done by the Henson Creature Shop. And I really like the way they dealt with Zaphod's multiple heads in a very creative fashion.
In the end, the movie was kind of a treat for fans to see a lot of the stuff they had read about visualized in a modern, big budget fashion. But the movie as a movie was pretty weak and random. If you're a fan, it's definitely worth a look (3/4 stars), but if you've never seen or heard any incarnation of the guide before, you'll probably want to give it a miss (2/4 stars).