Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Anyone ready to see it next week? I can't wait. I'm actually more excited to want to see this and FF (jessica alba ) over SW:ROS.

I may go check it out next week. I remember reading some of the book as a young teenager. Never finished it. Movie looks good.

yup, going this thursday night. Only question is where & how drunk.

Some friends have been worried that it could be too 'Americanized'*, but i think it's just gonna be funny.

*

Over here I'm hearing it will be too British for the American audience to get. Whatever. I still plan on eventually seeing it as I loved the books.

I, too, was worried about it being too American.

Good. I can actually start to look forward to it.

I'll see it too, but I don't know when yet.

Not getting my hopes up, but that may let me enjoy it more should it turn out well.

My worry has been, that with Adams gone, the studio would try to turn it into just another generic sci-fi flick (references in the TV commercials I've seen to the main characters having to "save the galaxy" reinforce this worry).
I expect I'll see it, but I may wait until it gets to the local second-run, $1.99 theater (as I've done with pretty much everything except Lord Of The Rings the past few years).

In The Times yesterday there was a DVD with a half hour little programme about the new film, and if that was anything to go by it looks pretty good. It's *very* different from the TV show, but the designer was told only to go from the books and not watch the tv series so that explains that. Also Adams had a lot to do with the concepts and the story and stuff before he died. He rethought Zaphod and his second head and made the love story between Arthur and Trillian more important. He aslo said he didn't care where any of the actors were from as long as Arthur was English, all of which they've followed. Marvin is very, very cute which I thought was goign to be a bad thing but I think it works. The look of it all is pretty darn good and what I saw of the actors makes me think they'll all work. Stephen Fry as the Book is perfect and the aliens look very cool indeed (well, what do you expect from the Creature Workshop?). Maybe not quite how I imagined it from the book (the Heart Of Gold doesn't look anything like I imagine, but does still look good) but still looks like it should be very enjoyable.

I think also because the books, radio series and tv series are all so completely different I won't be bothered if the plot is changed much. It does seem to be mostly the first book but wouldn't be surprised if they change the ending a bit.

Two more days...!!!!

I saw it last night! It was great!

It's been a while since I've read the books or watched the TV series (haven't listened to the radio plays), so a lot of dialogue popped back at ma once it was spoken, even though I'm sure there were some Adams purists in the audience that were criticising every minor digression.

Spoiler free (assuming you've read the books): I felt the movie was as good an adaptation as you can make of such a dense work given the constraints of the format. Some may find the addition of an arbitrary 'villain' and the amping up of the love story as unnecessary, but I didn't find them to detract from the movie at all. I was enchanted for a couple of hours by the imagery, the ideas and how they were translated to the big screen, and the varied yet all at least servicable performances by the actors. The SFX are top notch, which seems vaguely odd given my rememberances of the BBC TV series, and some of the designwork and rethinking of the sometimes largely undescribed portions of Adams' original book is truly inspired (Deep Thought is a standout - recast as a skyscraper-scale Mesoamericanoid monolithic golden idol mated with a desktop PC, trying to assume a pose that evokes 'The Thinker').
Martin Freeman from the Office is excellent as Arthur Dent, carrying off the bewilderment and supressed British outrage of the role with aplomb. Mos Def I felt was less impressive as Ford Prefect than he could have been, seeming a little more subdued than I remember him. This may be to avoid a clash of personalities with Zaphod Beeblebrox, who is over-the-top the the extreme; he did grate for me at one point, but this was followed by a radical event befalling the character that forced a radical personality shift. Trillian I thought was OK, but I suppose it's hard to compete when you're surrounded by such powerfully different characters. Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android (referred to as the Depressed Robot by a kid as we were walking out - he liked him best) was a skillful piece of voice acting... and you will believe a movie audience can care about the fate of a robot character after seeing the finale! The voice of the Heart of Gold put me in mind of Talkie Toaster from Red Dwarf, and the visual method they use to show the Improbability Drive was great! The Vogons were grotesque, especially the Vogon troopers in gimp suits, and their Deconstruction Fleet is awe-inspiring. An early scene where they show pan back from Arthur's shattered house along the flank of a Vogon vessel both manages to lampoon scenes like the opening of A New Hope as well as drive home the massive scale of what they are actually doing. Slartibartfast was great, and the scenes of the 'Planet Construction Yard' were excellently put together and really made a good stab at depicting their massive undertakings.

Some will hate it... but clearly I did not! Do yourself a favour and go along!

Oh yeah... and the opening Dolphin number (prefaced by Adams' explanation of the 3 smartest species on Earth) is great! So long and thanks for all the fish indeed!

PS And how could I forget the Guide itself! Brilliant adaptation of the 'Book' to the multimedia age, with cute two-colour animations displaying the concept being described. They put me in mind of early 50s animations - very well done and quite whimsical and amusing. The voiceovers were perfectly done as well; I could have sworn it was the original voice from the TV show.

Well I went to see it.... I liked it. It had some parts that made me laugh, some of the visuals were fantastic and I did enjoy the guide and its animations.
I just did not get the excitement I got when I saw the previews. It seemed the previews showed all the really funny scenes.
To tell the truth I could have waited for the DVD on this one.
Just my opinion.

Peter Jones was the voice in the TV show. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 80. I'm not sure but I think for the movie Stephen Fry was the voice of the book. Or maybe he was the narrator. Perhaps he was both?

Well, I saw it.

I was getting kinda self conscious because I seemed to be laughing and snickering in places nobody else was. But it was pretty funny in places!!!!!! I can't help it if the rest of the audience didn't find it that humourous.

I was a little disappointed in it, though. I was just hoping for more. And was it me, or did they kinda mesh some of the books together. I was also miffed that they let the "ultimate answer" out of the bag so quickly. Granted, it's probably been 15-20 years since I've read all the books. (I think I re-read them when "Mostly Harmless" came out.)

I guess it's just hard to get all that lunacy ("lunacy" - heck, is that even a word???????) to translate to a visual medium.
I was impressed with they way things were handled and explained via the guide. >snicker-snicker< And that bit during the closing credits.

Silly question ... did anyone else think part of the Guide interface looked a little ... "Next Generation"-ish? Just curious.

I enjoyed the movie. And I may get it when it comes out on video. But more than anything I wanna go back and re-read the series again.

Oh yeah ....
Did Zaphod remind anyone else of a certain sitting president?

Accent and cowboy boots and all?

Okay, I haven't read anyone review of H2G2 yet because I want to give my opinion about what I saw and not be influeanced.

As a whole, I really enjoyed the movie. There was a lot of scene's that had me laughing hard and many that had me chuckling. The chuckling was anytime Marvin was giving his depressing talks. Get voice in Rickman.

I did love the beginning with the dolphin. The song had me thinking lounge act. I could see the dolphins singing this before they left.

I really enjoyed the H2G2's narration during the movie. It gave the audience members a feeling of what is going on. Kind of a continuity connection.

I did catch a major background joke. When Zaphod, Ford and Arthur were cutting through the line, the Marvin from the UK series was in line (the robot with the rectangular/concave head. Nice placement.

I have a few problems with the movie though:
1) It was never mentioned in the movie about the reason for a towel. Unless you read the book, one will never understand the reason a hitchhiker carries one. And if I remember my book correctly, Ford's towel had shown some wear to it.
2) Ford was on Earth to investigate it for H2G2. We find that out while Ford and Arthur are on the Volgan ship. There is no mention in the movie about Ford's entry about Earth...that being Earth: Mostly Harmless. This should have led to a interesting discussion while on the Volgan ship. IMO this made the reason for Earth model 2 seem like a throwaway idea.
3) I was slightly freaked out by Zaphod, esp with the location of his second head. I mean by this is this Texan, psychotic personality. I didn't expect it to be so flamboyant or, as the movie has stated, stupidness. Guess I need to reread the book and find out how, if any, of it changed.

All-in-all, a good 3.5 stars out of 5. I do want to catch this again in a matinee to catch more of the injokes.

Oh, I did love the trailer for Disney's Chicken Little. It did start off like the beginning for H2G2, including the Earth exploding, the DON'T PANIC that would be on the Guide. Then the DON'T falls down and Chicken Little is screaming and running towards the camera. Great movie tie-in!!

So long & thanks for all the fish
So sad that it should come to this
We tried to warn you, but oh dear

You may not share our intellect
Which might explain your disrespect
For all the natural wonders that grow around you
So long, so long & thanks for all the fish

The world's about to be destroyed
There's no point getting all annoyed
Lie back and let the planet dissolve around you

Despite those nets of tuna fleets
We thought that most of you were sweet
Especially tiny tots and your pregnant women
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long & thanks for all the fish

If I had just one last wish
I would like a tasty fish
If we could just change one thing
We all have learned to sing

Come one and all
Man and mammal
Side by side in life's great gene pool

So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long, so long, so long, so long
So long, so long & thanks for all the fish

"There was a point to this story, but it has temporarily escaped the chronicler's mind."
"In the beginning the Universe was created... This made a lot of people
angry and was widely regarded as a bad move."

saw it, and it was... ok.

Not as breakneck funny as i'd hoped but the first half paced well. Great casting. Martin Freeman was perfect as Arthur.

Sam Rockwell was great as Zaphod, sort of Owen Wilson channelling Zap Brannigan. And you have to admire the man for wearing the skin-tight gold boxers with as much aplomb as he did. Despite the dodgy second head he carried much of the humour and got many of the best lines too. ("Honey, are you wearing my underwear? 'cause i'm wearing yours and they're not cutting it")

Mos Def as Ford and Alan Rickman as Marvin were excellent, they just really didn't get to do enough. More screentime they should've had, mainly because the main reason Marvin is so funny is he's so relentlessly depressed, the odd comment just doesn't convey him.

Bill Bailey in his cameo as the whale was great (the petunias last words mean so much more if you've read the book).

Unfortunately, the love story between Arthur and Trilliam did annoy me. Everytime they had a moment everything crawled to a halt and it did distract. Especially as you did not get the impression that Trilliam actually was a rocket scientist.

Overall it seemed like British humour confined to the form of an American movie, i was hoping for something a lot more anarchic, but it was fun and worth catching if not must see.