The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy wasn't one of my favourite books when I first read it; I was expecting an epic and instead got something a lot smaller in scale that seemed to progress randomly from event to event, letting the jokes carry the story. I remember thinking that Dauglas Adams had nothing on Terry Pratchett (creator of the Discworld book series). Since then, especially after reading the next book in the series (The Restaurant at the End of the Universe), my appreciation of HGG has grown quite a bit. The book has flaws of course, but if you just accept those as part of the creation it also has some astoundingly brilliant moments.
The reason I mention this is that the same could be said of the movie. It's certainly not perfect; it reduces some of the jokes in the book to one-liners (the basement joke is particularly disappointing), there are parts where it feels as if the characters are just randomly travelling from planet to planet, and the line delivery in some sections is a bit inaudible. Nevertheless, the movie definitely brings something new to the series - visual humour. Besides the excellent flash-animated Hitchhiker's Guide entries that are littered throughout the film, there are many moments in the movie where the book's humour is conveyed perfectly without any use of words whatsoever. This definitely makes the movie a worthy addition to the series, and is definitely something that they should pursue further if they plan to make a sequel. The final 30 minutes of the film are especially awesome, and redeemed any doubts that I might've had during the middle of the movie (much as Restaurant at the End of the Universe redeemed my doubts about the HGG book).
Regarding other complaints that people have raised: the romance between Trillian and Arthur IS a touch overdone, but not by a lot. I felt that this was always a part of the original book in any case; here it's simply made a little more prevalent. My only suggestion to them for the next film would be to avoid a cheap Hollywood trick that they used this time around - showing them kissing in a rotating close-up shot. The romance is fine, but it should be made a little less "movie-like". The other complaint was that there is a section of the story regarding Zaphod's political rival that doesn't really go anywhere. I think that this is something that was planned to be completed in the sequel (a bit like Greebo talking about Jabba's bounty on Han Solo in Star Wars: A New Hope). And I certainly hope they do make a sequel!
A fabulous movie, on the whole, recommended from me! 9/10. This is one of those movies that I'd be happy to watch again (and I would too, if only theatre prices weren't so expensive)!
The reason I mention this is that the same could be said of the movie. It's certainly not perfect; it reduces some of the jokes in the book to one-liners (the basement joke is particularly disappointing), there are parts where it feels as if the characters are just randomly travelling from planet to planet, and the line delivery in some sections is a bit inaudible. Nevertheless, the movie definitely brings something new to the series - visual humour. Besides the excellent flash-animated Hitchhiker's Guide entries that are littered throughout the film, there are many moments in the movie where the book's humour is conveyed perfectly without any use of words whatsoever. This definitely makes the movie a worthy addition to the series, and is definitely something that they should pursue further if they plan to make a sequel. The final 30 minutes of the film are especially awesome, and redeemed any doubts that I might've had during the middle of the movie (much as Restaurant at the End of the Universe redeemed my doubts about the HGG book).
Regarding other complaints that people have raised: the romance between Trillian and Arthur IS a touch overdone, but not by a lot. I felt that this was always a part of the original book in any case; here it's simply made a little more prevalent. My only suggestion to them for the next film would be to avoid a cheap Hollywood trick that they used this time around - showing them kissing in a rotating close-up shot. The romance is fine, but it should be made a little less "movie-like". The other complaint was that there is a section of the story regarding Zaphod's political rival that doesn't really go anywhere. I think that this is something that was planned to be completed in the sequel (a bit like Greebo talking about Jabba's bounty on Han Solo in Star Wars: A New Hope). And I certainly hope they do make a sequel!
A fabulous movie, on the whole, recommended from me! 9/10. This is one of those movies that I'd be happy to watch again (and I would too, if only theatre prices weren't so expensive)!