It’s Perfectly Safe!
Posted on | May 4, 2005 at 6:18 pm | 2 Comments
Rare Sweeps Month blog entry here…
Guess I better weigh in with my review of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. I was going to be cute and put it in the form of an HHGG entry (”Mostly Harmless” or something like that), but I figured that’s probably been done to death already. So, if that’s your thing, just imagine this review formatted that way…
Anyway, I’m having a really hard time crystallizing my thoughts on this movie. The book it is based on is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, it’s probably my #1 favorite humor book. And the movie stuck pretty close to the book, aside from a few side quests (the John Malkovich subplot, the visit to the Vogon homeworld, the romance storyline) that seemed tacked on in order to pad it out a bit and give the story more of a single movie arc. Most of the dialog seemed to be word-for-word from the book, which I would consider a Good Thing. The casting and acting was generally pretty good, though I could’ve done without Sam Rockwell doing Zaphod Beeblebrox as a cross between George W Bush and a surfer dude. And Mos Def’s Ford Prefect was a bit too scattered. The production design held my interest and the effects were well done. Loved the opening musical number. The animated Guide bits are great. I was sad when the movie was over and would like to see a sequel. I would like to see it again.
I just have a feeling I should’ve liked it more than I did, yet I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Maybe I’m just finally bored with the story, after having become so intimately familiar with it through the book, radio show, and British TV show incarnations. Maybe the movie didn’t really bring anything new to the table. The audience I was with laughed from time to time, but not very boisterously. I think the movie is a bit too British to play well for Americans who aren’t already into Monty Python-type absurdity humor, which is sad. I kept wondering if I would’ve laughed more if I wasn’t so steeped in the lore. The gags and the dialog fly fast and furious, so you really have to pay attention. Exposition is thrown out willy-nilly, and plot threads are not always tied up or explained (for example, I don’t think they ever explained the scene where the mice steal a lock of Arthur’s hair, though the reason is obvious to those who have read the books). I bet the eventual DVD with the deleted scenes put back in will be interesting.
I’m giving this a one on the Nod-O-Meter – the bureaucratic wrangling on the Vogon homeworld bored me a bit (even though it was new stuff!), but the rest held my interest. I would like to know if people who have not read the book enjoy it more than people who have…
Latre.
Comments
2 Responses to “It’s Perfectly Safe!”
May 13th, 2005 @ 12:27 am
We finally saw it tonight, at the ‘El Capitan’ – a Disney-owned theater right across from Graumann’s Chinese, which meant it also hosted an exhibit of props and costumes from the film. (The full-size Vogon costumes were impressive – and they were made just 3 blocks away, at the Henson place!)
The wife liked it overall, especially Zaphod (I guess we know more real people who are like that character…); I felt it didn’t suck, but certainly was no unqualified success. It was definitely “for the fans” – I doubt anyone not familiar with the storyline (such as it is) could have followed it for long. And if I hadn’t read that it was directed by a music-video guy, it would have taken me all of 5 minutes to figure it out – the whole movie reeks of “oh no, I only have 10 seconds left to show my stuff!” (I’ve also heard it called “first-time director syndrome” and have seen it elsewhere)
I hope it’ll be successful enough to spawn a sequel, one with a more experienced director. I think all the cast have potential, if they’re given more time to grow into their roles. I hope they don’t keep trying to cram so much story into so little time, if they DO continue. And if I had a rating scheme like your nod-o-meter, it would have something to do with whether I’m glad to have paid $23 for 2 tickets… this one rates a ” – I just HAD to, dammit!”
Trivia you won’t see elsewhere: in the props exhibit, there was an object labeled the “Total Perspective Vortex”. It wasn’t in the movie (it’s from the radio scripts, and to a lesser extent the 2nd novel), but looked expensive, so I’m guessing at least a whole subplot was cut fairly late in the process…
May 13th, 2005 @ 7:48 am
Yeah, the directing could have certainly used some polish.
Hopefully the abandoned subplots will show up on the eventual DVD. I don’t remember the TPV from radio/2nd novel – been too long, I guess. Sounds familiar though.