H2G2

So I finally got around to watching the DVD of The Hitchhiker's Guid to the Galaxy this week. And the two commentary tracks. And the making of documentary. And have developed what most people would probably define as a very unhealthy attraction to Zooey Deschanel in the process. (What can I say? I just think that it would be really cool to date a girl named Zooey.) And as a guy who has read every word that Douglas Adams ever wrote five times over, as someone who figured out how to retrieve the Babel fish in the Infocom game, as someone who was genuinely saddened by his death, I have my final verdict on the film...

It's not that bad.

Ok, it certainly is not a great film. In fact, if you are not familiar with the source material I wonder if it would make much sense at all. If you are familiar with the source material you'll find a lot of things that you don't like and a couple nice additions. Let me discuss.

First, let's look at the cast. Martin Freeman makes for a different Arthur Dent than in the previous versions. Previously, Arthur quickly resigns himself to the fact that none of this will ever make sense and decides that his mission in the universe is to find a nice cup of tea. In the movie Arthur is driven by the fact that they finally decided to make Trillian his love interest (something that was hinted at in a couple of the different incarnations). I know that some of the H2G2 traditionalists didn't like this but from a character and plot standpoint it works much better. And Zooey does the best job anyone has ever done on Trillian. Mos Def is a cool version of Ford, though this is the character that probably least resembles the different incarnations (mainly because there just isn't time to explore his character). Sam Rockwell makes a rock star Zaphod Beeblebrox and they finally, after 25 years, figured out how to do the two head, three arm bit and not have it look incredibly stupid. And Marvin the depressed robot was spot on, really hitting Douglas' vision that this should be a state of the art, fantastic machine that just happens to be terminally depressed.

So why wasn't I jumping up and down when I first saw the film?

Because you basically can't turn a 6 hour radio series, a 3 hour television series, 5 books, a computer game and a towel into a 100 minute movie without losing a lot of good lines. It's really obvious at the beginning of the film. The entire opening with the Earth being destroyed has some of my favorite writing on the planet in it and so much was cut because it just wouldn't work unless you wanted a 4 hour film. Plus, a lot of the great parts were these side comments that had nothing to do with the characters or the plot and were just a convenient point for Douglas to start discussing philosophy. Those has to fall by the wayside because film narratives can't allow it. I think that once I realized that on the second time through I really began to understand and enjoy the film a lot more. I stopped looking for what was missing and started seeing what was actually there.

Some good new material as well. The point of view gun is classic as well as the Vogon planet. And John Malkovich plays another extremely freaky character. Or, to put it another way, John Malkovich plays John Malkovich.

I also want to say that the Jim Henson folks did a great job on the creatures. This ties to what I wrote yesterday. This film was actually improved by the fact that all of the aliens were puppets, which gave them a three dimensional weight. I really feel that it worked better than if they had gone out and done everything in CGI. It honestly made everything feel more real.

So, if you are like me and are a huge fan but avoided the film in the theater because you were frightened that it would be awful and ruin your memories of the books, don't worry you can go ahead and watch the DVD. If you've read this far and have no idea what I am talking about, make your way to the science fiction section of your bookstore and pick up The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. You'll finish it in a day, if you can stop laughing long enough to finish it, and then see the film. And then read the rest of the books and catch the radio series. There's always something new to find.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody.