if douglas adams was alive…
… he would flay all the people involved in this movie, take out their organs and feed them to the blasted fishes. Himself included.
Warning 1: Spoilers ahead.
Warning 2: This movie sucks ass.
I swear I had no good expectations.
I knew the movie would not live up to the books.
I was prepared for it.
But everything has a limit.
I wasn’t prepared for the whole she-bang.
Most importantly, I wasn’t prepared for the extreme level of suckiness that supercedes even Teenage Catgirls in Heat.
First of all, the opening scene dragged on for a long time. The dolphins were cute but not that cute. The point could have been delivered by half or three quarters of the total dolphin-featured scenes. That was the beginning of a cheeky rip-off version of Adam’s works.
I thought Mos Def was a little unnatural. Yes I understand that Ford Prefect is unnatural; what I mean is I didn’t think that Mos Def brought out Ford Prefect that well, his reactions seemed to be a second slower… I am no guru in acting skills nor films nor arts but heck! I paid for the movie ticket and that was what I thought!
And they totally massacred the whale scene, which incidentally is one of my favourite scenes!!! There are some things that are better appreciated in writing, like MY SPERM WHALE PLUNGING TO ITS MISERABLE AND UNTIMELY DEATH THINKING TO ITSELF! *sigh*
I like the CGI and technological what-not effects, the visual interpretation was quite good actually. And the scenes when the Infinite Improbability Drive took effect were hillarious. I like how they managed to bring out the Hitchhiker’s Guide the colourful way it was.
I didn’t like the Vogons. Well nobody really likes them in the first place but the evilness of the Vogons in this movie was too Hollywood. I didn’t like Trillian’s role here. Zaphod : too annoying though his flamboyance and high ego were duly noted. Thank you. Arthur… can’t complain. Marvin… disappointment. I just couldn’t connect Alan Rickman’s voice to Marvin. Sounding depressed is one thing, sounding like a snobbish upper class member of the Britain’s royal family is another. If you never read the book I highly doubt you would truly appreciate Marvin’s predicament.
Having said that, I understand it is not easy to bring a movie alive from a book such as the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The erratic journey that spawned 5 books is not easy to cover. Still it would have been good if they concentrate on only, say the first book OR the first and second book.
But there is a positive side of the whole movie going experience. We watched it at the 1U’s new GSC cinema - wah lau it was fab! Except for the slow service behind the popcorn counters, everything else was great. The seats were cool, the space was cool, the sound was cool. I think KY will later write about this as well and he might tell you how cool the parking was.
So anyway…
I as an ardent Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series fan beg you to please watch this movie. THEN read the books and you will better appreciate the genius that was Douglas Adams.
Thank you.
Tags: entertainment, h2g2, movie
Judging from the emotions you’ve poured through this post, it’s really _that_ bad, huh?
Now my curiosity has just went up a few notches… must watch this one.
I agree with you. However, I don’t think that a classic like ‘Tenage Catgirls in Heat’ can ever be sucky. Oh they suck, but then that’s what they’re suppose to do in the movie, isn’t it?
Yeah they blew it big time, it’s not a good advert for the books..
Will write about it later too.
They should have just concentrated on the first book for a movie, rather than trying to fit in all the buzzwords and memorable scenes from the whole series, it was a little jumbled and too eclectic to understand if you hadn’t read the book.
curiosity piqued! gonna watch it this weekend. will see how far it (doesnt) live up to the books!
hey, I thought the movie was pretty fucking brilliant. just the way Adams would have wanted it to be…
It wasn’t too bad as movies go. We should’nt let the filmmakers be subjected to the Vogon’s poetry reading.
Hah! Someone told me it sucks like hell, strongly discouraged me from watching. Okay, from what you said, I shall strike this movie off my to-watch list.
I didn’t like it much.. prefer the BBC series… but only cos I can’t read. Did it just come out there or something…
Haven’t seen the movie yet, but as a lot of people keep pointing out (whenever there is a “this isnt what Douglas Adams wanted”), Douglas Adams did actually work on the screen play. He was touting it around Hollywood in a few different forms trying to get the movie made before he died.
Admitedly, Hollywood kept asking for changes, and I think the Screenplay used in the end had another writer come in and change and re-arrange it once again (for Hollywood) - but a lot of the screenplay was still Douglas’ own work.
Of course, tweaking a screenplay can has disasterous effects. So would be interesting to see which bits were changed from Adams original screenplays (plural as he did many to try to get Hollywood on board).
Of course, having not seen it (but having read the books, seen the TV series, listened to the Radio series), I have to agree, concerntrating on ONE book at a time would have been best, as ther eis a lot of material in all of the books.
One of my favourite characters is the Lorry Driver who was also a rain god! I doubt he’ll ever get into any Hitchhikers movie, as they’d all be too short to include him!
hahaha…though it is not as good as the books…i thought its worthwhile to give it a mention….but at least it a hell lot better than DUNGEONS & DRAGONS…..well that is what you call a DISASTER…… all agree??
Luckily I didnt go. Tee Hee.
But Marvin looks soooooo cute woh.
I only read the first few pages of the book at a friend’s house and without any recollection of the book, I can say I enjoyed it thoroughly. I don’t intend to go out and get the book as I don’t have time to read.
This is one of the ultimate geek books, or series of books anyway, H2G2 (as it\’s affectionaltley known by geeks) is actually a book and a series…
indeed it lacked a little
but was an enjoyable movie I thought
some things where distracting but overall entertaining
heh I said everybody should go watch the movie, THEN read the books
anyway it’s a personal thing, some like the movie, some don’t, I don’t regret watching the movie because it is something like a must-watch for me, even though I thought it sucked.
Nic, the movie was only shown here on 23rd June..