The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[Forceape]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyone seen this film? i was thinking of going to see it cause it looks good, but i heard from some people its not well.... Good :P

[cjlhdevil]

I saw it and enjoyed it and I loved the books also. For anyone that says it wasn't full the fact the film was written by the creator of the books I think he mighta got it the way it was ment to...

[Phil]

I saw it last week and thought it was pretty good. It's worth seeing anyway. I've never read the book though.

 

 

 

(how funny is it when they have ideas on that planet) :P

[RincewindSW]

It will never surpass the books, I've not seen it yet, though I want to.

[Futurama]

Incidentally, going to see it in 1 1/2 hours - will write something worthy tonight :wink:

[Mayjest]

I've heard it was crap, but I still want to see it. Largely out of tribute to Douglas Adams, probably the only person in the world more random and annoying than me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For evidence of Adam's randomness, look no further than the whale in space. You know what I mean...

[Pete_the_Viscous]

I saw it, yeah... I didn't like it that much. I think it was because it was made primarily with the people who've not read the books in mind that it was so. It was lacking, for example, all the deep philosophical book entries, for example, and had a rather crappy modern romance thrown in. In fact, the main thing put into it for already-fans' benefit seemed to be lots and lots of referrences to things that are in the book, but not in the film.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn't think Mos Def as Ford Prefect would work out; I couldn't see him playing him as he is in the books or radio/tv programmes. What a nice surprise it was, then, that the character was changed sufficiently that he played it really well; he had to be my favorite character in the film. A shame, it was, that Marvin was reduced to such a small part.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Getteth me not wrong; it's not a bad film---the bit where they're whizzing about on earth2 is inspired---it's just that it wasn't as good as it could have been. I thought the The Lord of the Rings films were as good as the book (though different, obviously), and wonder why I didn't come out of seeing this film feeling the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just felt that it had been dumbed down, that's all. I know DA had a hand in making it, but that doesn't stop it having been produced for the masses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, not bad, just not great.

[Futurama]

Just got back. It actually, was pretty damn boring. Sure, it had its moments, and some of the special effects were pretty good, especially the vector-style animation on the actual guide, but it wasn't great. Feel the same way about it that i do for an unfortunate series of events - worth seeing if you want to see every half decent movie on at the time, but not worth particulary going for.

 

 

 

See it once, or rent it when it comes out.

[cjlhdevil]

Rob can I ask. Have you read the books before?

[Futurama]

Cj, no i havn't, however i'm planning to - that or watch the bbc series :wink:

[Mayjest]

I thought someone might end of comparing the LotR book - film conversion with HHGTTG book - film conversion. Note that I haven't seen HHGTTG, nor have I read the books in full (my mate wanted his copy of the first two back, and I read So Long and Thanks for All the Fish befor ehand), so I'm just going on my general impression.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For LotR, the films were way better than the books. Tolkien admitted that he wrote the books purely for his own enjoyment, and it shows. The fact that the ending is given away during the prologue is evidence of this. The books themselves (especially the Frodo and Sam one's the Legolas/Aragorn and crew less so), are dull, insipid and boring, and were a chore to read. After the first book, I only read to say that I finished it, I never actually enjoyed reading it. The films meanwhile are entertaining, with a few lulls during Frodo/Sam scenes that went on for a *little* bit too long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HHGTTG seems to be in reverse. The books travel so fast from one scene to the other, and are so random than lesser minds cannot understand nor keep up, that it almost forces you to enjoy it, even if you don't get the jokes. The film for some reason, slows down, making it less enjoyable when you realise how unfunny Douglas Adams really was. A big mistake people made with the HHGTTG series was mistaking randomness for funniness. Fortunately the pacing of the books was so that it didn't matter, but once it's slowed down in the film it becomes dreary and a chore.

[Zeldafreek]

8-Bit Theatre has never steered me wrong and until enough people tell me that they're wrong and Garth Jennings didn't ruin it by gutting the jokes for more plot and special effects I'm not seeing it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not that I get why we're comparing LotR and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galxy as if they're the only two (four) movies to ever be made from books but the LotR movies are nowhere near being better than the books. Now, I'm not a 'movie' person and I could not care less about an actor not being believable as a character (as long as they don't screw up the lines they did a good job in my book) so there might have been artistic crap like that that was wrong with the movie, but they were good enough (The leaving out Tom Bombadil, having elves at the Hornburg, and the fact that they needed to be compressed knocked them down a notch) but the books were great. Maybe that fact that you kept reading an 1100 page trilogy while you did not like them influenced your opinion a bit (Not that I'm not biased), I know if my teachers in grade school made me read an entire 1000+ page book I wouldn't of liked it either.

[Adam007]

I honestly hated it. And that's saying a lot, considering 90% of movies I see I like. I could barely stay awake through the second half of the movie. It had nothing going for it. There were stupid jokes the whole rest of the audience was cracking up over. I read some reviews when I got home, and they pretty much said that you'd either love it or hate it, and if you haven't read the books you'll most likely both not like it or have any clue to what's going on. It also said the whole movie was also like an inside joke to readers of the book, and you'll feel really left out and clueless to why things are so funny to everyone if you haven't read it, which I did feel.

[Greatsilverwyrm]

It's really difficult to say whether or not I liked it..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was dissappointed that a few of my favorite jokes were left out of the movie. Things like Marvin talking to the police ship and it killing itself, and the actual dialogue from the "happy doors", for instance.

 

 

 

I also didn't like how Marvin was portrayed. He looked like a fat aibo. I imagined him sort of the same, but much more thin, a smaller head, and shiny bright stainless-steel-like.

 

 

 

The Vogons, I thought, played too much the role of the villian. Part of the reason the Vogons were so funny was they showed up when you'd least expect it, when you'd forgotten about them. I suppose they had to do that for it to be a good movie for the masses, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did, however, like a lot of the things they did.

 

 

 

The expansion of the "sneeze cult" was rather amusing. John Malchovich's character was great.

 

 

 

I also did, despite not liking the vogons, enjoy their trip to the planet, simply for the flyswatter things at the beach. That was one of the most full-out funny parts of the entire movie.

 

 

 

Mos Def as Ford was, as Pete said, pleasantly surprising. I didn't think he would be good at all, but he pulled off the odd, quirky, alien part very well. Many of the things he said/did were high points in the humor of the movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm conflicted on Zaphod, I think in the movie they made him out to be much more of a sort of shallow, ladies-man, moron, whatever, than he was in the book. Though the "thinking cap" was funny.

 

 

 

Ford and Trillian's romance thing is also something I can't really decide if I like or not. I think it fit in well with the movie, and I think that it's something that would have fit in well in the book, too, if Adams had simply chosen to write it that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marvin's dialogue was funny, but ultimately I think he was underused and ill-interpreted. He could have brought up the entire movie.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One final note: Douglass Adams did indeed write a screenplay for the movie, but he obviously had no say over the final product, and the writers, from what I've read, changed it fairly significantly. I think Adams' original screenplay held much more truly to the books.

[Blaze The Movie Fan]

Wow, I loved it. These aliens are bad really bad, it's good that..........No you don't, I'm not gonna tell you what happens in the end

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I saw it and I think it was fantastic! :lol:

[Pete_the_Viscous]

Yeah, he "wrote the screenplay" in that he wrote a good amount of stuff, which they chopped up and edited. I read an interview with the guy that did the rest of it, and he talked about how he had trouble trying to work out where best to put what Douglas had written, which suggests to me that he wrote the lesser part of it. One could tell he had an influence, though, as they didn't quite succeed in sucking all his style out of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again I'm going to say it's an alright film.

[Sir_Flegg]

I'm a MASSIVE fan of the books/radio series/tv series and I'm hoping to go see this soon. From what I've heard it has lost some/all of the charm the books have and parts that have been missed out seem a real shame in my opinion (marvin and the police ship for example).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

p.s. the whale bit is one of the funniest things ever :wink:

[battletrax]

I thought it was good. It was funny on it's own and it had moments that were made for ppl who read the books. I was also kind of dissapointed that they left out so many funny parts and they had to thrown in a stupid romance that added nothing to the movie. I also didn't liek the guy who played zaphod and the heads not being side-by-side ruined a few jokes...

 

 

 

I guess I have mixed feelings. I think I'm going to read the book series again (gotta be the 4th time by now) and then decide how good the movie was. :)

[Antrune]

well ive never read the books but I enjoyed the films - especially Marvin (a depressed robot) I would recomend it

[intheknight]

to anyone who has seen the mvoie and has not read the books, READ THEM, the movie is almost nothing like the book(which i have almost memorized) half of the movie is just filler and other things because they could figure how to make the effects work

[chaosgone]

I saw it. I thought it was a good movie. I've read all of the books, too.

[limpxbizkid]

gotta say i expected more from it. maybe all those medieval book being made into movies dripping with special effects and good acting has currupted me. i read the book before and walked away from both the movie and book slightly puzzled tho.

[jackalope14]

I havnt read the books but I saw the movie and thought it was pretty good. I think the people who read the books first then saw the movie didnt like the movie as much because, since it didnt follow the book very well (as I hear) they were expecting something different.

[ny1990]

seen it i personally really liked it the perfect combo of simplicity and action, wouldt be a fan if u dont like to read betwwen the lines though and if u dont get sarcasm and impersonation :lol:

[pedm]

I've read the books and liked it. I haven't seen the move but would like to see it even though so many people say that it is bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PDM