Another Point of Singularity

Deconstructing HITCHHIKER'S...

Garrett and I went to see this on Saturday, as a consolation for having our scout campout rained out.

First off, I liked it-- pretty much. It was amusing, very visual and generally moved along at a nice clip. The script was decent-- writing credit goes to Douglas Adams himself, who was intimately involved in the production of the movie until the day he died (and he shows up as "the countdown head" briefly at one point), However, the script did not capture my attention as much as the PBS BBC TV version I saw so many years ago.

The movie is to the book as, say, the Lord of the Rings movie was to the book-- MUCH of the book's soul was trimmed to make the plot move along at the speed that it did.

There are many good points. Stephen Fry's narration was perfectly droll and supercilious, just like you would expect the Hitchhiker's Guide voice to be. The credits are very kitschy and cool, opening over a dolphin dance number of "So Long and Thanks for all the Fish."

I like the actor they got to play Arthur Dent in this film far more than the Arthur in the TV series.. he's the Joe Everyman I always expected Arthur to be, whereas the TV version was kind of a whiner. Mose Def as Ford Prefect was inspired casting, I suppose, but he was only marginally convincing to me. Maybe he should have gone for 'more alien'.

Movie Arthur:


Movie Ford and Zaphod:


TV series Arthur (in bathrobe) and Ford:


Trillian is given a larger role in the movie than in the book, and Zoey Daschalle (who was so winsome in ELF) performs ably and is cute as a button, to boot. Alan Rickman's voice of Marvin is quite good... but he seems almost the obvious choice for the role. Alas, they made the robot itself almost too cutie-pie for words and that took away from the effect.



I like the BBC Marvin (which appears in the movie, btw!) much better. Sam Rockwell as Zaphod (simply put) sucked. The BBC Zaphod (stupid special effect head and all) was driven, meglomaniacal and arrogant. The movie Zaphod was just "a dick". And I didn't like the movie reinventing the second head the way they did, neither! I want to see a Ray Milland/Rose Grier style THING WITH TWO HEADs kind of two-headed man, dammit.

The special effects are not, surprisingly, that overwhelming. The Vogon fleet is vast and immense, but almost comicly so. The Heart of Gold (and especially the Improbability Drive) are very well realized-- the point where the drive engages is pretty funny. The scene with the whale is, simply put, pretty dang great.

The animation of the Guide itself is great - the entry for Vogon's is spot-on. Its simple animation, but in this case its wholly appropriate. The music that's played when the book is first discussed is lifted from the BBC series.

There are a couple of divergences from the book plot in the movie-- and they are most welcome if you've seen the BBC TV version more than once (as I have) and read the whole series at least once (which I have).

In sum, it was entertaining, if not memorable. Not quite the earth-shaking bit of cinema I had built up in my own head, but not hugely disappointing. I'd see it again to catch the parts I napped through.

Walt

PS: Here's some props from the movie on display at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood!

http://www.zacmicro.com/gaminggaragesale/Hitchhiker

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