Comments On The HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE Movie...

[WreckGar]

I just got back from HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE. As a reader and long-time fan of this little book series - and the radio series that came before it - I was absolutely ecstatic about it finally reaching the big screen. I KNEW there'd be changes of course, and Douglas Adams had said as much before he died.

 

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble - I really don't - but I must say that I was SUPREMELY disappointed in this adaptation.

 

Here, let me give you a list of examples as to why:

 

First of all, none of Adams' dialogues - when they're used - are even complete. Therefore, a lot of the jokes that were hilarious in the other media are never even finished. It's not like they would have taken more than a couple of seconds, they're just - not there. When Arthur tells Prosser that he had to go into the cellar for the bypass plans, we don't hear about the locked filing cabinet, beware of the leopard sign, etc. The joke is completely destroyed. The ultimate blasphemy, though, is perhaps the Babel Fish. They go through the bit about what it does, but they DON'T tell you the bit about it proving the existance - and therefore NONexistance - of God. That piece of dialogue is one of the CALLING CARDS of this series. In fact, ALL the theological jokes except for the Oolon Coluphid trilogy have been COMPLETELY removed, as if some fairy of religious nonoffensiveness waved a magic wand over the script and it all disappeared.

 

In fact, there's almost NO bit of Adams material that ISN'T scarred, and sometimes the actual jokes are ruined because of it. The bit about Vogons not saving their grandmother from the ravenous bugblatter beast without orders signed, lost, found, queried, and all that jazz is left in, but they DON'T tell you that the quickest way to annoy a vogon is to feed grandma to said monster - meaning they are so beaurocratic they even hate themselves. That's THREE SECONDS OF DIALOGUE and makes the joke!

 

And HUGE gaping plotholes have been ripped in the story in the adapting. Ford says on the Vogon ship that Vogons don't pick up hitchhikers, but there's NO ONE THERE WHO LET THEM ON. In the other media the Dentrassis who cook for the Vogons did, covering up that matter all nice and neat. If the vogons don't pick up hitchhikers, who the hell picked them up in the first place? The movie even goes as far as to introduce stuff from the following books - Zaphod's half-a-brain issue, for example - and only deal with them half-assedly.

 

Complicating matters further is the fact that they added THREE new subplots to the story - a romance between Trillian and Arthur which isn't too bad and I guess should be expected, a weird rescue sequence on the vogon planet which just fills space, and a trip to ANOTHER planet that introduces yet ANOTHER subplot that isn't even resolved. The entire middle hour of the movie is nothing but these unnecessary subplots. "Well they probably needed it for time," you might say, but if they needed filler they should have actually finished the jokes and spared us this dull, pointless runabout stuff.

 

The vogon poetry scene in particular is terribly scarred. Arthur and Ford don't get to finish their attempted compliment of the poem with "whatever it is the poem was about!" absolutely ruining that joke, and, instead of responding with the bit about writing poetry to throw his harsh exterior into sharp relief, the Vogon captain just barks out that they be thrown out. ANOTHER good joke killed for no reason.

 

Ford makes damned sure Arthur has a towel, but the movie doesn't bother to explain to us WHY the towel's important. We see Ford hitting Vogons with it later in the movie (!?!) but no mention of the "there's a frood who really knows where his towel is" comes in. THAT'S A TRADEMARK OF THE SERIES! You can't leave that on the cutting room floor!

 

The movie also doesn't take advantage of some great opportunities when they have an opening. When a character is about to be fed to a ravenous bugblatter beast, they had a great opportunity to pull off the old joke of "cover your face because it's so dumb it thinks if you can't see it it must not be able to see you," but it doesn't happen.

 

The Factory Floor scene is by far the best stuff in the movie, that much I will say. And I couldn't help but laugh at the scene with the little whatsits hitting the crew in the face every time they think.

 

If you haven't read the book in a long time, or if you haven't read the book, you'll probably find it much more enjoyable than I did. But, as an adaptation of Adams' original work - regardless of media and version - this is just not the same thing. It's a cobbled-together thing with bits of the Adams' novel half-injected within.

 

I would be very curious to see what Adams' script looked like before it was tinkered with. I have trouble believing that THIS was what he had in mind for the long-awaited HITCHHIKERS movie.

[SoCalWolf]

thanks for the comments, and also for elaborating on them rather than just leaving it as "disappointing" or "sucks".

 

I knew that there would have to be some stuff left out, re-written, changed etc but the items that you listed just seem so bizarre. why cut them?

 

It seems from what I've heard/read so far that they're trying to inject a plot to carry the movie, however the book/radio series/TV series was NOT about the plot. It was satire and social commentary with bits of plot to set up the next bit of satire and humor.

[sirdick]

Yeah some interesting points there, I'm a big HHGTTG fan and I'm going to see the film tomorrow night. I'll pass comment when I see it.

[RagenWrongly]

They did leave a lot out of the movie. Then changed it a bit. The movie was entertaining. But I with be finally happy when I own a halo deck and can run the book w/o any change.

[WreckGar]

They did leave a lot out of the movie. Then changed it a bit. The movie was entertaining. But I with be finally happy when I own a halo deck and can run the book w/o any change.

 

A bit? The entire middle HOUR of the thing is added. ;)

[str82u]

My first intro to the books was the BBC radio show I heard on NPR as a kid (I wasn't a geek, but NPR had very interesting shows at night) and that got me to read the books. I enjoyed them a lot, and repeatedly, much more than Montey Python English humor (they took loke too far for me and became boring), but D. Adams rapid fire gags and intelligent jokes drew me in. I'm really sorry to hear this from y'all and others and the people who liked the movie at my job are folks I wouldn't trust for a review of toilet paper.

 

Maybe I'll just download it here and save myself the gas and ticket money.

 

On an up note, my girlfriends nieces work at the theater where Episode III is playing and guess who gets to go to the midnight Preview the night before opening day.........yeah baby, Str82U is going straight to the theater! I'll let you all know when I get home.

[tinpusher]

Im "hoping against hope" that the DVD Release will be a "special directors cut" with "never before seen footage" and all of the missing material will be replaced.

And hey, Str82U, do you have a good digital video camera?

Wink Wink

[BorisP]

Sounds like they did the same thing they did with I, Robot.

 

Take the title of a world famous book from a world famous author and slap it on their movie. Doesn't matter if the movie resembles the book at all. The title brings in people expecting the book and, once the theater has your ticket money, it is too late to complain.

[WreckGar]

Sounds like they did the same thing they did with I, Robot.

 

Take the title of a world famous book from a world famous author and slap it on their movie. Doesn't matter if the movie resembles the book at all. The title brings in people expecting the book and, once the theater has your ticket money, it is too late to complain.

 

Well, no, it's not really THAT far from the source material. There's a lot of source material, it's just very, very cobbled up.

[Lukeyson]

It was good to get touches from the original series though.

 

Like the original Arthur Dent actor playing the recorded message from Magrathea. And the original Marvin Android standing in the detention queue. And finally, to have the Banjo-twanging original soundtrack lobbed in when the movie finally got going made me feel all warm and fuzzy.

 

It was dumbed-down and sanitised for the mainstream audience, that's for sure. Certainly, the tie-in between Arthur and Tricia was forged much more strongly early on, rather than retroactively explained as it is in the book. So the statement from Arthur to Zaphod of 'we've met' didn't come as a surprise in the movie - which seemed to be the point of it in the book.

 

Zaphod's 2nd head just freaked me out - not what I was expecting at all. And another bit that suprised me was when they were in the Vogon airlock for some silly reason. I guess I was expecting the airlock to be somewhere else ;-)

 

For a first-timer it isn't a bad movie, but it does seem to be a bit of a dead-end standalone movie, without hope of getting the other books up on the screen - which is kind of what I was hoping might happen.

 

 

Lukeyson

[ssarbyug50]

I completed agree. Enjoyable, but very dissapointing.

 

A LOT of the great one-liners and jokes are either missing or cut short for no reason when it would just take a few more seconds to tell it right.

 

The Mr. Prosser thing was a travesty in the movie. Half of the conversation between Arthur and Prosser is cut out and ALL of the conversation between Ford and Prosser was taken out. That was one of the best scenes in the book/radio show.

 

Instead, Ford comes out of nowhere with a SHOPPING CART full of beer and peanuts. This scene would have taken the same amount of time if they had left the jokes in.

 

And why go to the pub now? The whole point was to go to get the beer and peanuts, why go if Ford already has it?

 

The Arthur/Prosser conversation in the book:

"I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the Display Department."

"With a torch."

"The lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But you found the plans, didn't you?"

"Oh yes, they were 'on display' in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the leopard.'"

 

 

The Arthur/Prosser conversation in the movie:

"I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"But you found the plans, didn't you?"

 

 

 

There were GREAT opportunities for the great lines and jokes form the radio series/book/tv series. They just didn't use them.

 

We get NO talk between the Vogon guard and Ford (although I hear that it was filmed but cut). The Airlock scene is horribly cut short - even "I wish I had listened to what my mother had said when I was younger" "Why, What did she say?" "I don't know, I didn't listen" would have been great.

 

 

Other opportunities all over for these great lines that wouldn't take any time at all. Either cut short as to take away the joke, or not in it.

 

The Guide entries are exactly as they are in the book except several are cut short - but otherwise not altered. The entry on the Point of View gun is new, but still sounds good.

 

 

 

 

-It is never explained why towels are important or why you need one

-How they got on the ship if vogons do not expect hitchhikers is not explained

-Vogon poetry scene cut short, messed up

 

 

Zaphod is an IDIOT with half a brain in the movie, whereas in the books and radio series he is just this cool, laid back guy.

 

Otherwise, I found this movie enjoyable - definitely my least favorite incarnation of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

 

Still the best movie that I have seen this year.

 

Liked

-Marvin

-Ford introducing himself to a car before meeting Arthur -

just a great scene.

-Viltvodle and the cult religion (Viltvodle IV - it becomes just Vilvodle for the movie - is mentioned in the radio series and books, although not sure why humanoids were doing the worshipping and not Jatravartids, although we do see one outside)

-Point of View Gun

 

 

I see how much it could have been better because I just recently re-read the book and listened to the radio series.

 

If you are unexposed, you will either really like it or hate it and be confused out of your mind (in both cases) because many things are not explained at all.

 

Douglas Adams had been trying to get the movie made for a long time. He signed the deal with Disney in 1997, died in 2001 but had completed script done. Obviously they have made changes since then - so blame the guy who co-wrote it (ie: made the changes after douglas adams died) for the faults :D

 

[maverick]

I just got back from HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE. As a reader and long-time fan of this little book series - and the radio series that came before it - I was absolutely ecstatic about it finally reaching the big screen. I KNEW there'd be changes of course, and Douglas Adams had said as much before he died.

 

I don't want to burst anyone's bubble - I really don't - but I must say that I was SUPREMELY disappointed in this adaptation.

 

Here, let me give you a list of examples as to why:

 

First of all, none of Adams' dialogues - when they're used - are even complete. Therefore, a lot of the jokes that were hilarious in the other media are never even finished. It's not like they would have taken more than a couple of seconds, they're just - not there. When Arthur tells Prosser that he had to go into the cellar for the bypass plans, we don't hear about the locked filing cabinet, beware of the leopard sign, etc. The joke is completely destroyed. The ultimate blasphemy, though, is perhaps the Babel Fish. They go through the bit about what it does, but they DON'T tell you the bit about it proving the existance - and therefore NONexistance - of God. That piece of dialogue is one of the CALLING CARDS of this series. In fact, ALL the theological jokes except for the Oolon Coluphid trilogy have been COMPLETELY removed, as if some fairy of religious nonoffensiveness waved a magic wand over the script and it all disappeared.

 

In fact, there's almost NO bit of Adams material that ISN'T scarred, and sometimes the actual jokes are ruined because of it. The bit about Vogons not saving their grandmother from the ravenous bugblatter beast without orders signed, lost, found, queried, and all that jazz is left in, but they DON'T tell you that the quickest way to annoy a vogon is to feed grandma to said monster - meaning they are so beaurocratic they even hate themselves. That's THREE SECONDS OF DIALOGUE and makes the joke!

 

And HUGE gaping plotholes have been ripped in the story in the adapting. Ford says on the Vogon ship that Vogons don't pick up hitchhikers, but there's NO ONE THERE WHO LET THEM ON. In the other media the Dentrassis who cook for the Vogons did, covering up that matter all nice and neat. If the vogons don't pick up hitchhikers, who the hell picked them up in the first place? The movie even goes as far as to introduce stuff from the following books - Zaphod's half-a-brain issue, for example - and only deal with them half-assedly.

 

Complicating matters further is the fact that they added THREE new subplots to the story - a romance between Trillian and Arthur which isn't too bad and I guess should be expected, a weird rescue sequence on the vogon planet which just fills space, and a trip to ANOTHER planet that introduces yet ANOTHER subplot that isn't even resolved. The entire middle hour of the movie is nothing but these unnecessary subplots. "Well they probably needed it for time," you might say, but if they needed filler they should have actually finished the jokes and spared us this dull, pointless runabout stuff.

 

The vogon poetry scene in particular is terribly scarred. Arthur and Ford don't get to finish their attempted compliment of the poem with "whatever it is the poem was about!" absolutely ruining that joke, and, instead of responding with the bit about writing poetry to throw his harsh exterior into sharp relief, the Vogon captain just barks out that they be thrown out. ANOTHER good joke killed for no reason.

 

Ford makes damned sure Arthur has a towel, but the movie doesn't bother to explain to us WHY the towel's important. We see Ford hitting Vogons with it later in the movie (!?!) but no mention of the "there's a frood who really knows where his towel is" comes in. THAT'S A TRADEMARK OF THE SERIES! You can't leave that on the cutting room floor!

 

The movie also doesn't take advantage of some great opportunities when they have an opening. When a character is about to be fed to a ravenous bugblatter beast, they had a great opportunity to pull off the old joke of "cover your face because it's so dumb it thinks if you can't see it it must not be able to see you," but it doesn't happen.

 

The Factory Floor scene is by far the best stuff in the movie, that much I will say. And I couldn't help but laugh at the scene with the little whatsits hitting the crew in the face every time they think.

 

If you haven't read the book in a long time, or if you haven't read the book, you'll probably find it much more enjoyable than I did. But, as an adaptation of Adams' original work - regardless of media and version - this is just not the same thing. It's a cobbled-together thing with bits of the Adams' novel half-injected within.

 

I would be very curious to see what Adams' script looked like before it was tinkered with. I have trouble believing that THIS was what he had in mind for the long-awaited HITCHHIKERS movie.

 

cool name man.

 

do you talk tv?

[WreckGar]

AND

 

The survey saaaaays...

 

YES!

[maverick]

me grimlock say we on our way

[espurious]

I felt that the film lost some of it's 'Britishness'. The whole 'stiff-upper lippedness' just isn't there with Martin Freeman and Mos Def.

I also didn't like Alan Rickman. For me, Marvin came across as sounding more annoyed than depressed.

[S0V13T]

Contains a few Spoilers, You've been warned (Posted in a different thread)

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I saw it today too. I was expecting it to suck worse then the Bourne movies conversion from Book to Film. Yeah, a lot of the jokes were messed up / taken out / slightly changed, and well, they just made a LOT of new stuff up all that, but its the way the series goes man.

 

The radio play is different from the books, and the books are different from the movie from the 70's, and the movie from the 70's is different from the movie in 2005. Each incarnation of the Guide has something new added to it, and something different.

 

I actually was plesantly surprised by the 2005 movie, to be honest. After readin the bad preview reviews of it, I feared the worst, just like the Star Wars prequals. I guess with expectations so low, the movie could only be better then I expected. I like how they made a lot of the story up. The same charecters were in a new adventure, I liked it.

 

Oh, and I thought Zaphod was hilarious by acting drunk and extra stupid ALL the time, and Mos Def wasn;t exactelly how I pictured Ford to be, but he did a great job. Next time I read the books, I'm gonna picture Ford to be black.

 

Os it just me, or did they say "Belgium" like 6 times in the movie? Should have had an R rating for that over use of profanity.

[sirdick]

Next time I read the books' date=' I'm gonna picture Ford to be black. [/quote']

 

Just miss out the bit that says his hair is wiry and gingerish and brushed backwards from the temples ;)

[magpie1509]

loved the bbc series hated the lame movie -to straight no humor about the onlu entertainment was the end credits, highly disappionted if they continue the series hopefully they'll get someone who can carry Dougies work off gor him

[TFMF]

I didn't really like the movie - They cut a lot out of it and they rushed it at the end. :(

[dsw182]

Saw it a couple of weeks ago. I didn't think it was bad, but I didn't think it was that good. Overall, I was left with no feeling about it.

 

I did contemplate a few different problems I had with the film, but they ended up all coming down to one point - Not enough Guide.

 

The Guide has always been used to get through large amounts of exposition, explain things, was the major source of humour and, the main point, was the device which linked each scenario together.

 

Without the Guide references the story just becomes a series of moments on different planets.