[microreview] Oh freddled gruntbuggly…

The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy microreview
(crossposted, with modifications) It’s a damn good film. It’s a very different thing from the book, but it is very respectful to the work and feels very much like Douglas’s handiwork.

For me, the Hitchhiker’s series carries a central theme of wide-eyed wonder about the utter enormity of the universe, and a warmhearted and innocent appreciation of the miraculousness of finding happiness despite the staggering odds against it. This movie absolutely knocked both of these points out of the park. There’s an extended sequence in the second half of the film that had my mouth hanging open for a good long while.

I got the distinct feeling that the audience at the theater I went to (Azalea Square in Summerville) didn’t get it. There was a small contingent of fans on one side of the theater that laughed constantly, but the rest could only manage an occasional murmur. Quite a few were displeased. I had to concentrate hard to keep from whipping out the double deuce on some chump behind me. During a key (and hilarious) scene, he said “Could this get any dumber?” Fume.

The film is drastically modified from the book. Whole subplots are gone, others emphasized or simplified, and new ones made up. Whole characters are gone or severely limited. Trillian went from a astrophysicist to…an endearingly crazy girl whose primary responsibilities consisted of flying the ship and getting kidnapped. You could call it a butcher job, or you could call it necessary adjustment to make the story fit into a movie. I could really see it both ways, but the way the parts they *did* decide to include were handled gave me such a terribly pleasant feeling (in the diodes on my left side) that I I was happy with it as a whole. The source material is so rich that it would be better served by a long-form “HBO Original Series” type format, where you could spend an entire season per book. Making a film out of it requires serious hacking and slashing, and I think they did about as good a job as could be done. I think it’s pretty fantastic they got in as much as they did (Vogon poetry! The little bejeweled crabs! The sperm whale-potted petunias bit! GPP doors! Gargle Blasters!)

I had mixed feelings about the Guide segments; by themselves they were absolutely brilliant, but they did tend to kill the pacing. Overall I liked the casting, Martin Freeman especially (I think he was grown in a vat to play Arthur).

High points: The opening musical number, the Magrathea planetary yards (I just couldn’t help gaping at that), “I’m a sofa”.
Low points: The lemon helmet thing didn’t do it for me. The double titles. Pacing, like I said before. Also, wasn’t there supposed to be a Serenity trailer attached? I did get there a little late, maybe I missed it.

If you’re wondering, I brought a towel. (It was a paper towel. I sacrificed some utility for portability.)

–riney