A bit of this, a bit of that

[threemonkeys]

The are probably hundreds of thousands of HHGTTG reviews going into blogs today after the opening weekend of the movie. I don't see why I should be left out.

Actually I'm having quite a few problems putting any coherent thoughts down. Overall it was better than I was afraid it was going to be, but it was still a mixed bag. Very mixed. Some of the casting was spot on, some of it was way off. Some of the story modification was good, some of it missed the mark. Some of it was funny, some of it fell quite flat. Visually a lot of it was well done but there were some things which didn't work for me. And so on.

First the voices - there are a lot of voiced parts, the nature and origin of the story mean these were of great importance. Stephen Fry was an excellent choice for the key role of the book, but the real standout was Alan Rikman's voice of Marvin. I honestly can't think how anybody could have done better. Bill Bailey was satisfactory as the Whale, although I expected better from him and Richard Griffiths was as bad as I expected as Vogon Jeltz. In smaller roles I really liked Helen Mirren as Deep Thought despite the departure from the style of the radio series but Thomas Lennon as Eddie was insufficiently annoying.

Martin Freeman and Zooey Deschanel were very sound dramatic actors and physical choices as Arthus and Trillian. But when the moments that were supposed to be funny came their comedy delivery was flat. The camera spent a lot of time focussed on Zooey Deschanel's eyes - an excellent bit of direction as her eyes are both expressive and quite stunning. Mos Def had a physical presence about him that really captured the jittery Ford Prefect nature, but this was spoiled by his delivery of lines. He mumbled so many punchlines that I wondered if he was capable of regular speech. Zaphod was played by Sam Rockwell and was the biggest disappointment. Not because of the actor but because of the way the character was written. The old Zaphod may have been superficially flighty, but underneath there was always a directed drive - with this new Zaphod, he was just a flake. He has been devalued in the Guide currency.

For the most part I was happy with the modifications to the story. I am comfortable that no two versions will ever be rendered the same way. Unlike some of my companions at the screening, I liked the way the core plot was driven about reuniting Arthur and Trillian romantically. The last of the Guide books gives a lot of hints to this being what Douglas Adams wanted to do with these characters. There were two major deviations from the plot - one to visit Humma Kavula and another to go to the Vogon planet. One or the other of these deviations would have been fine but both of them back to back stretched the continuity thread just too far and did not really add to the story. I guess they were there to establish that Arthur was driven by his fears which he had to overcome to win Trillian. I just don't think that both side journeys were necessary to do this - a lot of good bits were sacrificed to make time for them.

The final verdict I think really depends on how funny it was and how well it fit with the spirit of other incarnations of The Guide. There were a few good belly laughs and the return of many of the best lines. There was also a surprising amount of wit in the dialogue - not laugh out loud, but amusing. There was enough wit to mean that it does fit in with the other incarnations - just.

Overall, for me, its a marginal passing grade. Enough that I will probably buy the DVD to add to my collection of HHGTTG stuff but I will probably wait until the price is discounted.

Comments

[i-ate-my-crusts.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the review -- I'm still on the fence about whether or not to see it. Probably will. :)

[cricketk.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this. I have been in two minds (and three arms) about going to see it. I might wait until it's in the cheap cinemas.