19 May 2005 19:22 pm
I know very well this isn’t going to be an objective review. I am a loyal fan of the radio series owning the first three phases on either CD or cassette and know most of the first two word of word (the third doesn’t count considering it’s such a recent creation ;).
The problem with this film I believe is that it wasn’t taken seriously. Films like Lord of the Rings everyone said had a huge reputation to live up to (which of course it did, the books are legendary). But so did H2G2. And it failed – it was a Hollywood creation of something not designed to be Hollywood.
First let’s talk about the movie for a H2G2 newbie, someone who isn’t a fan. You could walk into the cinema and see an ok movie. It has its moments. But it wasn’t that good. There were no really great moments. It relies on the story for elements (even though it doesn’t really follow the original story) so you probably won’t really understand those bits either – for instance the constant reference to towels mean nothing unless you have heard the guide’s entry on the subject; an entry that the film failed to include.
It’s an ok-ish movie for someone who is not an existing fan. Something you might chuckle at every now and then but other than that it is just a run of the mill nothing special rather boring movie with one of it’s only few redeeming qualities being that it has Stephen Fry as the voice of the book.
Now a word for H2G2 fans – avoid. For a start Marvin isn’t depressed enough. Mos Def does not give a convincing performance as Ford (nor did David Dixon in the TV series in my opinion) but that is for a different reason and in general a different matter. Trillian isn’t smart enough. The list goes on.
What really gets to me though is the style in which it was done. The movie was a happy go lucky spree which none of the H2G2 infusion that Douglas Adams gave the series. H2G2 is not about comedy it is about bitter sarcasm that is also funny. This was just a generic comedy and that is not what H2G2 is about.
Martin Freeman (Shaun of the Dead, Love Actually) takes on the roll of Arthur and although he doesn’t give a bad performance, he just isn’t right for the part. Arthur needs to be more lost in this huge galaxy, he just isn’t.
Hollywood’s classic science fiction genre conventions shine through in Trillian who almost gets eaten only to be saved by Arthur and ends up falling in love with him. If you wanted to make the most generic text you could possibly too, this movie was at least well on its way. A mention of her degrees in Mathematics and Astrophysics might have been nice.
The movie has few redeeming qualities – possibly the fact that the imagery looks quite good, such as when Arthur is being taken around the replacement Earth. There is even the occasional laugh. It may possibly squeeze out a good film for the average movie-goer but fans should avoid. My conclusion – thank god for Stephen Fry!
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