Author Topic: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy  (Read 5066 times)

-KEN-

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
« on: May 01, 2005, 10:50:58 AM »
I loved the books. Really loved them.

I disliked the movie. Really disliked it.

The jokes seemed to be delivered all too quickly and all wrong. The story seemed to be all over the place. The guide entries seemed too goofy: they looked like they were all done in Flash. I hated the new direction that they took the story in (ew, love story), and I couldn't stand how goofy the Vogon guards looked. Zaphod seemed to sound way too much like George Bush. The pacing seemed way off, making the movie feel about 10 hours long.

I don't know. Maybe it was because I'd been up for over 24 hours at that point; maybe it was because I had just gotten done reading a round of bad reviews; maybe it was because I was with two people who actually fell alseep, but I just couldn't like the movie. As much as I wanted to, I just couldn't like it.

Funny enough, though, the few scenes that I really enjoyed were mostly the ones that weren't in the book, which leads me to believe that maybe the lines from the book just didn't meet my expectations, and that maybe the movie was a lot better than I percieved.

Anyway, it's still better than most of what's out there right now. It's worth seeing if only for the opening montage, which really made me think that the movie might just be OK.

Also, even if they leave the whole backstory of Mr. Prosser out of the book, see if you can't spot where they had a bit of fun with it anyway. A lot of the movie has a few in-jokes thrown in for the fans of the book/radio/TV series, which must leave those not in the know out in the cold. For example, there's a scene where Ford walks into a bar, and everyone yells "Ixy!!"

edit:

It also seemed a bit like they mangled jokes from the book for no apparent reason. Sort of like they took the teeth out of almost all of the jokes. Like, when Arthur is sitting in front of the bulldozer, in response to Prosser's question about seeing the plans, all he says is "Yes, and I had to go into the basement to find them!" -- That part was always one of my favorites, and the movie just killed it.


All in all, 3/5

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« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2005, 10:54:42 AM »
I saw it today.  Wasn't really expecting much from it, but it did get a bit heavy for my liking.  Fair call that, 3/5.

>>Anyway, it's still better than most of what's out there right now. It's worth seeing if only for the opening montage, which really made me think that the movie might just be OK.<<

That dolphin song was so freaking funny.  "So long, and thanks for all the fish...".  Classic.
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jkim

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« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2005, 12:33:10 PM »
My friends saw it opening night, never having read the book.  They were quite confused, but apparently, they like the dolphin song.  I think they said that they weren't sure if it was supposed to be funny or not since no one else was laughing, but because they were so confused they just laughed through the entire thing. :dunno:

jverkoey

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« Reply #3 on: May 01, 2005, 02:36:10 PM »
Quote from: cboard
Well, since ES is down, looks like I'll have to post this review here. I just went and saw the movie today (opening day w00t) and I have to say I was partly disappointed by the movie. I couldn't help but feel that a lot of the acting was forced and that many of the scenes were kind of thrown in there just for the sake of following the book to some extent.

A big annoyance I had was how they changed/added the whole love-line to the movie, even though they only lasted a few 30 seconds at a time, they were annoying.

I'm too tired to write a full review of everything, overall I'd give the movie a 6/10 though. Decent, but not as good as I was expecting it to be.


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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2005, 02:53:02 AM »
Quote from: -KEN-
It also seemed a bit like they mangled jokes from the book for no apparent reason. Sort of like they took the teeth out of almost all of the jokes. Like, when Arthur is sitting in front of the bulldozer, in response to Prosser's question about seeing the plans, all he says is "Yes, and I had to go into the basement to find them!" -- That part was always one of my favorites, and the movie just killed it.
yeah, and the fact that ford distracted the workers by giving them beer sucked too...

IMO, the movie was better than I was expecting, but then again I wasn't expecting much from the movie... I think the best part of the movie was marvin, which of course, I expected to be the worst part of the movie... they also didn't touch on the whole towel thing, either... they just made ford look like some insane person with a healthy towel obsession...  if you don't hold the movie to any standards and don't judge it against the book, it turns out to be a decent movie... I'd give it a 7/10
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-KEN-

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« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2005, 06:53:00 AM »
That's a good point. And he uses the towel a bunch of times, too. One of my favorite parts was "Look out! He's got a towel!"

Marvin was pretty much the bright spot; especially his, erm, point of view. Although they never explain how he got off of Magrathea.

Anyway, something really nerdy thay I noticed: All of the characters look like they're drinking Earl Grey with milk: DNA's apparent tea of choice (mine is Earl Grey without milk -- adding milk just makes it taste like watery coffee).

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« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2005, 09:54:15 AM »
Earl Grey tastes like cat's piss.  Seriously.  It's got to be Irish Breakfast for me or nothing.

>>One of my favorite parts was "Look out! He's got a towel!"<<

I LOL'd when I saw that.  I don't think anyone else in the cinema had read the books, so quite a few of the references were flying miles above a lot of heads.  But to be fair, the whole towel thing wasn't clearly explained at the start.

>>Marvin was pretty much the bright spot; especially his, erm, point of view. Although they never explain how he got off of Magrathea.<<

Yeah, come to think of it they didn't.  He just sort of appears!
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« Reply #7 on: May 02, 2005, 10:54:31 AM »
I wanted to see it this weekend - but instead I went clubbing....maybe next week - hmm, but I think "crash" is coming out this weekend and that looks interesting...
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joshdick

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« Reply #8 on: May 04, 2005, 11:40:22 AM »
The books were so wonderful, but the movie was utter rubbish. Even reviewers who've never read the books hated the movie.

I knew it'd all end in tears.
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« Reply #9 on: May 09, 2005, 06:20:28 PM »
I went to see it this evening. I thought it was a decent enough attempt and continues the tradition (radio, books, tv) quite well. I'd agree that it was disjointed but I found different parts of the movie annoying; the love thing was insignificant and didn't bother me in the slightest. I liked the Vogons. The Guide itself was disappointing - the tv series from the early 1980's used animation to represent a very futuristic (for the time!) interface and I was surprised that, given today's technology, the film makers didn't excel themselves and astonish us with something wonderfully creative. They killed the Deep Thought encounter entirely - maybe the 'timing' issue that -KEN- raised is actually because they didn't pace it as it was done in the original radio series or the books; even the tv series managed to get that one right.

Still, I'd give it a 6/10 - worth a watch but nothing to get too excited about.
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« Reply #10 on: May 09, 2005, 07:47:36 PM »
to be fair though, tv series was pretty much a word for word adaptation from the book

still want to see the movie... hopefully this weekend

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« Reply #11 on: May 19, 2005, 01:49:09 AM »
saw the movie. now that i have, i'll respond to people's opinions

first, i liked the dolphin song too. once i heard it i was afraid they were going to go into a rap or rock or spanish or some other stupid thing (re: shrek) but they just did a regular silly song. that was cool.

Quote
The jokes seemed to be delivered all too quickly and all wrong. The story seemed to be all over the place. The guide entries seemed too goofy: they looked like they were all done in Flash.

i don't hate flash as much as some people here do, so i guess i found it ok. it wasn't amazing, but it was adequate, and (responding to fitlike) i didn't really think the tv series' animation was all that good.
Quote
I hated the new direction that they took the story in (ew, love story), and I couldn't stand how goofy the Vogon guards looked.
the love story was kinda expected and it didn't really bother me. it wasn't like it was pulled out of thin air (although very close to it). i read somewhere that they designed the vogon guards to look similar to the way they look in the tv series, for historical purposes.
Quote
Zaphod seemed to sound way too much like George Bush.

they both sounded like idiots to me
Quote
The pacing seemed way off, making the movie feel about 10 hours long.
yes, but it didn't seem that bad to me. it just wasn't laugh out loud funny, more of a comfortable funny, a british funny.

Quote
Yeah, come to think of it they didn't. He just sort of appears!

i guess the vogons and that woman (what was her role, anyway?) picked up marvin and brought him there.

Quote
For example, there's a scene where Ford walks into a bar, and everyone yells "Ixy!!"

what does this reference?
***SPOILER***
overall i liked the movie. the improbability drive was really funny, to me anyway. the second head was rather disturbing... i was relieved when they killed it off (for all intents and purposes). the two subplots i noticed that weren't in the book (rescuing trillian and the adventure before they got to magaratha(sp)) were well done and kept to the story as well as they could have. i mean, if you expect a literal adaptation of a book, you might as well film an old guy reading it aloud.

actually, zaphod beeblebrox freaked me out in general. was he meant to be not quite there all the time? the movie seemed to bring him in and out of coherent consciousness just in time to do something major but then he drifted off again while the rest of the movie went on.

marvin sounded and acted like i thought he would, which is a plus. his role at the end of the movie made me and my friends (who had never read the book) laugh out loud. arthur was who i expected him to be, but he somehow acted both insignificant and upbeat at the same time. that's a plus, since it makes a character who's meant to be boring in a book more interesting to watch.

-KEN-

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« Reply #12 on: May 19, 2005, 10:25:13 AM »
After a Hrung collapses on his home world of Betelguese 7, Ford's friends call him Ix, which means "boy who is not able to explain either what a Hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven" (something like that).

Also, I don't know. I just felt uncomfortable the whole time in the movie. I'll problably end up picking it up at some point just for the song, though :).

Ken Fitlike

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« Reply #13 on: May 19, 2005, 11:37:29 AM »
Quote from: ygfperson
i didn't really think the tv series' animation was all that good.
Fair enough. :) It's true they're dated now but for that time and for a limited tv budget, the Guide animations were quite innovative and brought the Guide itself to life. Interestingly enough, I noticed that the movie, while it used it's own style, still depicted some pages from the Guide in a remarkably similar way.
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
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