The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

I cant understand why people didnt like this film I really enjoyed it when i saw it at a preview screening and this was the general option of everybody in the screening even the hardcore fans who were there!
The majority of the reviews I have read have been really positive and I hope that it is sucessful so we get the rest of the books on the big screen!
 
Nope, it was only the film that was finished after he died - Salmon of Doubt was completely unfinished (which is a real shame - it's excellent as far as it goes).
 
I saw it yesterday at the showcase cinema bristol, There was only about 20 people (if that) at the screening i wasnt to impressed with the movie & by the mutterings of the others neither were they.
 
I went to totally full showing (probably about 200 people!?)

I liked it, but I didn't love it. To be honest, it was a bit of a let down. I know the books and radio series quite well, and have the series on dvd.

I think it's the american characters I just couldn't stand.... and a lot of the time UNDERstand. Don't get me wrong, Mos Def is cool and everything but did any other brits have trouble understand what he was saying? I would have thought the film would have been more successful with an all british cast. Maybe Sam Rockwell could have stayed, but as for Trilian, my GOD she was annoying. (and reminded me of Reese Witherspoon) Martin Freeman is fine, though.

On the whole, I thought it could have been a lot funnier. The drollness was there, but a lot of the time was fairly dull.
Some more British Humour could be put in I'm sure. The whole way through you more smiled slightly than laughed, and several jokes went totally belly up.

The best thing in the entire film is MARVIN. I actually cried when *SPOILER* he was shot in the head. Literally, sobbing. I know people were like 'awwww', but I was curling up in my seat. Ah well, PMS. He is perfect, his design, his voice... I want one. :)



Yes, I laughed at that more than ANYTHING in the film!
 
I saw this the other week, and I thought it was Ok, but a bit too manic and jumps about all over the place. It never stops for breath, or to explain anything. If they were going to add any new material it should have had the effect of slowing the action down a bit and engaging in some more philosophy, rather than all that Humma Kavula rubbish.
 
il be interested to see whether theres much in the way of deleted scenes when its released on DVD. i thought it was a great personally, even though ive read the book. Lets face it, the film was never going to be accepted as an equal to the book. even if they did stick to the original plot.
 
Ah, but as a Radio Show purist I refuse to acknowledge that the Tertiary phase exists because of how it refers to the whole Secondary phase as a dream. Which is just wrong.

So in FairyNuffWorld, my answer was right :D
 
Did I like this film? Yes! Was I dissapointed? Yes!

As a stand alone film, it would have been an amusing and impressive (SFX wise) couple of hours - albeit that the plot was disjointed, leaving plot lines unresolved. The RAB review is spot on - This film disregarRAB most of the elements that has made HHGTTG so popular - the wonderful characterisations, the ridiculous situations, and the surreal observational humour of Douglas Adams.


Some of the things I didn't like:

Deep Thought should not have been female.

Zaphod appeared as a dim psycho, not as an egotistic, devious and calculating, as in radio/book/tv (important as part of future plot).

Arthur should have shown more amazement at his new predicament, and had more of a "peeved" attitude. (Simon Jones got it spot on).

Jokes were reduced to punchlines without build up. Missed opportunites - the sighing doors, the "don't press this button again" gag, the whole philosophers bandwagon thing..

The book sections were cheap animations. I had hoped that they would be short films, and that there would have been more of them. And it didn't seem clear to me that Ford was writing for it (perhaps I missed that bit).


Some of the things I did like:

Seeing the TV Marvin in the Vogon queue.

It's a long time since I saw the TV series, but I think some of the other aliens in the queue also featured in its book sections.

The effects.


On the positive side, they left so much out of this film, that can include it in the inevitable sequel. Lets hope they do a better job of that one.
 
Yes, I too ejoyed Baileys performance of SlartiBartfast, I also enjoyed Alan Rickman as Ford Prefect... he was splendid. ;)

P.S. The plot was nowhere near the books, in fact it was as far away from the books as it could have been, in a dumpster, under a land fill, inhabited but computer gaming moles... scratching their ears with discarded bathroom products. :rolleyes:
 
Finally, I've seen the film and as a huge Hitchhiker's fan I've got to say... I loved it. It's a Hitchhiker's that has been written for the big screen, just as the original was written for radio and the book was written, erm, for the book. So I did not go in expecting to see an adaptation of a book or a radio show, but to watch a film written, or at least mostly written, by Douglas Adams with the characters and elements of the Hitchhiker universe and it did not disappoint.
 
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