I heard the radio series when I was a kid.
I watched the TV series first time around and thought it was utterly new and exciting.
I collected the original trilogy as soon as they came out in paperback... brilliant.
Then the fourth and fifth parts came - okay, but not the genius we'd seen previously.
Then the new radio series came along... like books 4 & 5; I had to listen religiously, even though they weren't great like they used to be.
And finally news of the movie going into production at last.
Now, since H2G2 hasn't been "fantastic" since the early eighties, I was worried... very worried. Given the tendency for movies to screw up books' stories, I was even more worried - so I spent a lot of effort following its progress and trying to convince myself it could be pretty good. Then I read the early reviews on IMDb and told myself that while some people said it wasn't so good, a lot of others thought it was well worth it.
And then it came to that fateful night when my girlfriend's sister called and asked us which movie we'd like to see together... and I suggested Hitchhiker's - but they could watch anything else if they wanted.
Hitchhiker's it was...
Oh dear oh dear oh dear. They're still mocking me for it. To put it bluntly, it's bad. Very bad. Under the circumstances of that evening, it was personally-embarrassing bad.
It's taken a month for me to get up the courage to write this, but here's what I can remember...
It opens with a musical number which seems totally out of place (and isn't very good).
It has no flow whatsoever, either in terms of story or editing. Things happen, you don't know why. Suddenly something else happens, but you don't know why. I was either lucky or cursed to know what should have been explained the whole time... goodness knows what the girls made of it.
The dialogue is terrible - either the result of poor acting, poor screenplay or poor editing. I don't know which, but I do know that there was a lot of incoherent mumbling or shouting throughout.
The characters had no character. I loved each and every one of them from the radio series' and books, but here they are flat, boring and sometimes just annoying (Trillian and Zaphod). Marvin ("he was cute" said the future sister in law!) had a tiny spark of the original, but only has about five lines in the whole movie. Strange, I used to think he was the most outstanding character in the entire oeuvre!.
On a plus point, the visual effects were nice - although I have to say I liked the book sequences in the TV series a lot more.
(Minor spoiler in this paragraph.) The messing with the story didn't improve things at all. The missing bits left gaping holes and the re-writing turned it all into a Hollywood "running from the bad guys" cliché... which it never was!!! The added bits were pointless and not very funny. Which brings us to the real problem...
This film is not funny. Where before there was great wit, there is now tame slapstick (you've watched the "funniest" bits already if you've seen the trailer!). What were once huge, convoluted, intelligent jokes are now rushed, throwaway links to the next scene. The weird little twists and concepts that put a smile on your face seem to have taken the day off. Most of the punchlines and proper delivery seemed to be missing. It makes you wonder if the makers actually understood the humour in the first place!.
And quirky humour was basically the point of Hitchhiker's, was it not?
I watched the TV series first time around and thought it was utterly new and exciting.
I collected the original trilogy as soon as they came out in paperback... brilliant.
Then the fourth and fifth parts came - okay, but not the genius we'd seen previously.
Then the new radio series came along... like books 4 & 5; I had to listen religiously, even though they weren't great like they used to be.
And finally news of the movie going into production at last.
Now, since H2G2 hasn't been "fantastic" since the early eighties, I was worried... very worried. Given the tendency for movies to screw up books' stories, I was even more worried - so I spent a lot of effort following its progress and trying to convince myself it could be pretty good. Then I read the early reviews on IMDb and told myself that while some people said it wasn't so good, a lot of others thought it was well worth it.
And then it came to that fateful night when my girlfriend's sister called and asked us which movie we'd like to see together... and I suggested Hitchhiker's - but they could watch anything else if they wanted.
Hitchhiker's it was...
Oh dear oh dear oh dear. They're still mocking me for it. To put it bluntly, it's bad. Very bad. Under the circumstances of that evening, it was personally-embarrassing bad.
It's taken a month for me to get up the courage to write this, but here's what I can remember...
It opens with a musical number which seems totally out of place (and isn't very good).
It has no flow whatsoever, either in terms of story or editing. Things happen, you don't know why. Suddenly something else happens, but you don't know why. I was either lucky or cursed to know what should have been explained the whole time... goodness knows what the girls made of it.
The dialogue is terrible - either the result of poor acting, poor screenplay or poor editing. I don't know which, but I do know that there was a lot of incoherent mumbling or shouting throughout.
The characters had no character. I loved each and every one of them from the radio series' and books, but here they are flat, boring and sometimes just annoying (Trillian and Zaphod). Marvin ("he was cute" said the future sister in law!) had a tiny spark of the original, but only has about five lines in the whole movie. Strange, I used to think he was the most outstanding character in the entire oeuvre!.
On a plus point, the visual effects were nice - although I have to say I liked the book sequences in the TV series a lot more.
(Minor spoiler in this paragraph.) The messing with the story didn't improve things at all. The missing bits left gaping holes and the re-writing turned it all into a Hollywood "running from the bad guys" cliché... which it never was!!! The added bits were pointless and not very funny. Which brings us to the real problem...
This film is not funny. Where before there was great wit, there is now tame slapstick (you've watched the "funniest" bits already if you've seen the trailer!). What were once huge, convoluted, intelligent jokes are now rushed, throwaway links to the next scene. The weird little twists and concepts that put a smile on your face seem to have taken the day off. Most of the punchlines and proper delivery seemed to be missing. It makes you wonder if the makers actually understood the humour in the first place!.
And quirky humour was basically the point of Hitchhiker's, was it not?