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"Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so" and The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy passes the aforementioned illusion
rather enjoyably.
The look and feel is fairly true to the radio show's description. The CG
is not overdone as it is in most science-fiction movies these days. For
example, I appreciated that the Vogons were large Jim-Henson-type creatures
as opposed to computer graphics constructions. The guide's stylized
animation is a bit off putting at first, but it eventually grows on you.
Despite the director's limited experience, the movie does look good and flows
well. Some of the scenes like the setting of the suns of Magrathea, and
Slartibartfast's tour of the new Earth under construction are beautifully
done.
The acting is, on the whole, well done. Allow me to assuage your fears;
Mos Def is an excellent Ford Prefect. The other American actors leave
something to be desired. Sam Rockwell [Zaphod Beeblebrox] presents an
unsettling imitation of George W. Bush. Zooey Deschanel [Trillian] does a
decent job, but comes off as far more sentimental than the Radio Show's
Trillian (though that may be the script's fault and not hers). From the other
and more accurate side of the Atlantic Alan Rickmann does an excellent job
as the voice of Marvin. His dry, depressed monotone makes up for the Marvin's
odd, cartoonish robot body. Martin Freeman is a satisfactorily nervous and
awkward Arthur Dent. Finally, but not completely, Bill Nighy is a wonderful
bumbling, old Slartibartfast.
One of the more promising aspects of the movie is that Adam Douglas
himself wrote the script. And he does offer up a fairly good abridged version
of the first book; though a few great lines are missing, most of them are
there. Unfortunately, Hollywood, his co-writer, or his own ill-conceived
ideas led to a few poor content decisions. For some reason the script adds
romantic dialogue between Arthur in Trillian. In the book and in the Radio
Series the possibility of a romance between the two remains comically
pathetic, but in the movie it seems that their love is one of the central
foci of the story. The relationship adds a whole new dimension of meaning,
something present neither in the "Trilogy" nor the radio show. It
stuffs this message down your throat: everyone is out there trying to become
rich and famous, but the only pure and true pursuit is love. The Radio Show's
absurd nihilistic view of the Universe - where most crises are met with
apathy, where people you care about pop in and out, where the laws of an
ordered reality are most probably wrong - is one of the things that made the
story great. To change this is completely unnecessary. My hope is that if
they make a sequel, which I hope they do, they will steer away from this. I
like the mindless goodtime, self-serving attitude from which the storyline
was originally wrought
Despite all this, the movie is still worth seeing, especially for the
less anal fans of the book. Just take a cue from your younger years and close
your eyes and cover your ears for all the romantic parts.
Official Movie Website:
http://hitchhikers.movies.go.com/
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