The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Reviews

No Guide - No Idea (2 Stars)

Ultimately disappointing, this movie adaptation of the book is mostly a collection of the most incorrigible parts of the book - that is, without the context that pulls the book back down to the Earth, so to speak. Martin Freeman does ok as Arthur Dent; however most of the other characters and voiceovers are either miscast or annoying. The acting is overcooked, scenes border on madness, and the CGI - the films one saving grace - borders on Disney. Thanks the Hollywood influence for misunderstanding and butchering another classic - this movie is all one liners and sight gags. The effect of these gags over two hours - is like someone blowing a party cracker for a laugh on a Monday morning - none too funny. I found myself bored through most of the film - which I never expected. I would compare this film to a very long episode of Red Dwaft, without much of the humour.

The GOOD news is, that while in the cinema I saw the Star Wars Episode III preview and it looked great. But as we know - with previews -- such as the Hitchhikers Guide Preview and Hype (they are getting really good at hyping movies aren't they) we can always piece together a garment from a messy pile of string.

Disappointing

After seeing the movie of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy I can see why devotees of the original books and series may well have been disappointed.

The motion picture format doesn't really suit some works and H2G2 is one such work. Plus points of the film - Stephen Fry as the voice, Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, Alan Rickman's Marvin and the retro look of the Guide's animations - were outnumbered by the flaws.

Namely the extremely irritating American porn star wannabe Zaphod, the alterations to what characters said and the chunks missed out, the overuse of the two joke Vogons (joke one - they're officious, joke two - their poetry is crap), the rescue Trillian bit in the middle of the film (although it was great to see the original Marvin in the queue) and how the whole thing ended. Some of its Britishness, its very soul seems to have been left out.

The makers were never going to be able to please everyone, especially we nerdy types who can quote scenes word for word. And in case you're wondering, no I didn't. Well, not too much.

Morale: Don't judge a book by it's movie, especially not this one. I'll stick with my books, DVD of the tv series and CDs of the radio show, thanks very much.

Sanitised Version

For avid fans of the Radio series, books and TV show this could prove to be something of a disapointment. The film is very well designed and filmed but the interpretation of certain characters tends to jar. This film is less wordy than any of its other incarnations and so alot of Douglas Adams' style is lost. Worth a watch though.

Panic!

This is not a good movie, it's not a patch on the books or the TV series or the Radio series. In short, it has as much depth as Vorgon poetry. I didn't know Douglas Adams personally, we weren't buddies, but I'm sure he wouldn't have liked this film.

On a positive note - perhaps the only one - Martin Freeman was rather good as Arthur Dent. I think he shone in the Office and he's turning out to be a rather fine actor, I look forward to seeing what he does next. However, everyone else, including the director, should feel very embarrassed about this mediocre effort and apologise immediately to anyone who has suffered through this film. 2 Stars, one for Martin Freeman and one for the fx, but that's all.

So long and keep the fish, like the movie they stink.

42 out of 7

I went expecting to be disappointed, but was pleasantly surprised. A good update of the original, well acted (OK so Ford faded into the background a little), complete with the usual rewriting of the key plot points which is now traditional for each version of The Guide.

Good, Adams humour and good slapstick to boot.

Nice to see the original Arthur and Marvin make cameos, along with various members of the Adams family (no not that one), and even DNA himself puts in a couple of appearences.

Oh no, not again

I suppose you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed. I've just returned from seeing the film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. On the bus home, two women were sitting with a giant piece of bubble wrap and were popping it intermittently and loudly. People shouted at them, pleading with them to stop and they just continued, and with more conviction creating headaches all round. I'm introducting this information because that experience was more preferable than sitting through large sections of this film. If you thought The Phantom Menace was the biggest disappointment of your life, you haven't seen anything yet. At least that had a cool lightsabre fight at the end.

I've been sitting at this keyboard for two hours trying to write a review. But I can't. After seeing the film I went to the pub and saw my friend Chris, who is much of a fan as I am. He asked me what it was like. I told him. The colour went out of his cheeks and it was as though I'd told him someone had died. I felt bad afterwards and wished I'd been more circumspect. So I'm giving you that. It's one of those films we're all going to end up making our own minds about. But long term reader will know what this film meant to me and I do feel like I've lost something.

There will be a huge number of very negative reviews written about the film over the following days and weeks. Which is good, it deserves them. But I do want to point out one particular positive, because there are so few things to like about the film. One of the new aspects is a romantic relationship between Arthur and Trillian. It's been hinted at in other versions, but here it's full blown and blooded. For some reason when the rest of the plot and film are falling apart, these scenes really work and it's generally because of Zooey Deschanel's playing. All the vague melancholy and loss which Simon Jones had in his playing of Arthur has been spirited into her -- when she finally finds out that the Earth was destroyed and from the last person you'd want to hear about it from, the look on her face is heartbreaking. The film feels more like her journey than anyone elses.

As I write I've got a copy of the book on my desk. It's a 7th printing, from 1980, the pages are yellow, but it's the original edition with the title of the book in computer lettering, in red on a greenish background. Open it up at a random page and you're guaranteed to find some kind of writing gem, be it dialogue, a description or a guide entry. I'll admit that having heard the radio series, seen the tv version, played the computer game and read the book a few times I know the material more than most, but it still has the power the thrill me and surprise me. I've opened the page and it's the moment when Arthur is sitting on Magrathea looking up at the stars and getting nostalgic about Earth as it dawns on him that the galaxy has lost a jewel and doesn't know about it. It's a moving moment, undercut as usual by Marvin saying how awful it sounds. The story in all these other forms is filled with these situations, a kind of sadness of something lost amid the humour. Which is the genius of the work. It's comedy, but it also has something to say about the universe and the human condition. It's a shame the film makers didn't understand that.

Mostly Harmless

I'd seen plenty of reviews of this and had resisted watching it because I felt sure I'd be disappointed. As a fan of the radio series, the books and the TV series I knew I'd have to watch it eventually, so I bit the bullet.

The good news:

It was a little better than I'd feared. The scenes on Magrathea with Slartibartfast were fun and there were a few nice touches dotted through the movie. Martin Freeman did a nice job as Arthur, Alan Rickman was fine as Marvin and Bill Nighy was a suitable Slartibartfast. Steven Fry was a good choice for the voice of the guide (but was underused). The FX in the planet factory floor were really nicely done.

The bad news:

Many of the funny scenes from the original were altered so as to remove most of the humour - I really can't understand why they did this. The original had plenty of plot - too much to cover in the length of a movie, so what do the directors do? .. Add two or three new plotlines, which mostly didn't work too well.

For the most part I found myself not at all drawn into the movie. It had the odd moment of fun and I get the feeling the directors were trying to make something memorable here - unfortunately they didn't manage it.

What a waste!

I have to admit to not having read the books, but I am a huge fan of the original TV series. So, I was looking forward to seeing an up to date version with all the benefits of modern effects. Oh boy, was I disappointed.

There were a couple of saving graces - the special effects on the Magrathea factory floor were superb, and the love interest between Arthur Dent and Trillian was an inspired touch. But this was far from enough to save the film.

Since the film was less than 2 hours, it meant much of the scenes in the original series had to be cut. Unfortunately, this meant much of the subtle comedy aspects also went, leaving just the bare bones of an adequate film.

Gone was the proof of the non existence of God. Gone was the background on Bethselamin. Milliways gets a mere mention. The Golgafrinchams don't even get a look in (please excuse my spelling throughout - as I have expained, I haven't read the books.)

Yep, loads of the story is missing, as is many of the book entries. Skipping the dark humour of the Sirius Cyberbetics marketing division also meant the Encyclopedia Galactica is only mentioned as a footnote. None of the characters seem to have the same depth as in the TV series. Marvin was the biggest disappointment - his depression was nowhere near as convincing as in the original, and his physical appearance did not do justice to the part. The original Marvin looks shabby by todays standards - the new improved Marvin looks even worse!

If you want to see great classic subtle British comedy, for God's sake, give this a miss and get the original. This could have so easily been great - as it is, it just grates!

Crud

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie is bad, really bad. This movie is so unbelievably ghastly. Its staggeringly jaw-droopingly bad. I mean, you might think that The Phantom Menace was a hopelessly misguided typically American attempt to reinvent a much-loved franchise by people who completely failed to understand what made the original popular - but that's just peanuts to the horrifically unpleasant Hitchhiker's movie.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Abysmal

I'm no avid fanboy of this material(it's a bit studenty in its humour)but it's deserving of an adaptation better than this. Avoid like the plague if you've read the book, heard the radio show or watched the television programme. If you haven't done any of those rent out something else anyway.