The Guide is a Bumpy Ride
Okay, I've seen Hitchhiker's Guide, and the best word I can use to describe it is...
Uneven.
There were parts of it I liked very much. The opening scene with the dolphins had a very nice Monty Python-esque water ballet and song entitled "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" (a nice nod to another book in the "trilogy") - which got my hopes up. H2G2 is very British and Python-esque in humor, so I thought we were off to a good start. And I know not everyone is crazy about how they did Zaphod B., but I loved him. He does Zaphod as a kind of SNL-spoofed Dubya, which made me laugh out loud at times.
Yet... there were disappointments, and they were severe. One was Ford Prefect. I just had him pictured SO differently. Much... cooler. This Ford seemed too bumbling for me. And Trillian looked, I'm sorry, like a teenager. Not one single line on her face to give her character or experience. So when they have the big scene about how someone in the movie is just one more guy in a long string of guys who doesn't "get" her, it just falls flat - this girl isn't OLD ENOUGH to be jaded.
And the movie gets a little, well, boring, in the middle. Especially on Vogon. But it really comes back around when they get to the end, about the origin of Earth and all. (I'm trying to be vague here and not spoil anything, so leave me a comment if you want more specifics than I'm giving.) The special effects, especially in this section, are really good. Really beautiful visual images.
So my final estimation - this movie is not the really fun romp through the Universe that the book is, but it's not a bad introduction to Douglas Adams. If it does nothing else but draw more folks to the original, then it will have accomplished something worthwhile.
Uneven.
There were parts of it I liked very much. The opening scene with the dolphins had a very nice Monty Python-esque water ballet and song entitled "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" (a nice nod to another book in the "trilogy") - which got my hopes up. H2G2 is very British and Python-esque in humor, so I thought we were off to a good start. And I know not everyone is crazy about how they did Zaphod B., but I loved him. He does Zaphod as a kind of SNL-spoofed Dubya, which made me laugh out loud at times.
Yet... there were disappointments, and they were severe. One was Ford Prefect. I just had him pictured SO differently. Much... cooler. This Ford seemed too bumbling for me. And Trillian looked, I'm sorry, like a teenager. Not one single line on her face to give her character or experience. So when they have the big scene about how someone in the movie is just one more guy in a long string of guys who doesn't "get" her, it just falls flat - this girl isn't OLD ENOUGH to be jaded.
And the movie gets a little, well, boring, in the middle. Especially on Vogon. But it really comes back around when they get to the end, about the origin of Earth and all. (I'm trying to be vague here and not spoil anything, so leave me a comment if you want more specifics than I'm giving.) The special effects, especially in this section, are really good. Really beautiful visual images.
So my final estimation - this movie is not the really fun romp through the Universe that the book is, but it's not a bad introduction to Douglas Adams. If it does nothing else but draw more folks to the original, then it will have accomplished something worthwhile.
posted by Mamabird @ 4:54 PM
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