Friday, May 06, 2005

 

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

I just realized that I haven't posted about this movie yet! I saw it the day it came out, despite the mixed reviews. I liked it! There were a few moments where I even got emotional seeing these incredible stories finally come to movie form.

I saw some criticisms that were right and some that were wrong. For instance, yes, the love story (stories) is (are) crummy and detracts from the story. No, Mos Def is actually quite good as Ford. Yes, the story can seem disjointed to someone who isn't fully aware of the backstory. No, the guide entries were very good and certainly met my expectations in narration and animation.

The first review I read (by Adams biographer MJ Simpson) was horribly bad. It was so bad that I expected the movie to be an unrecognizable shell of the story it depicts. This was not the case. There were several elements that I was sure even a moderately good movie would skip that made it in to this version. For instance, the mental monologue of the sperm whale. Fantastic.

Tracey hasn't read the books in a long time and doesn't really remember them. She picked up on a number of story elements that it seemed the movie didn't explain well. For instance, she knew what Zaphod did to his brain, but not why. The Heart of Gold didn't get the explanation it deserves. The infinite improbability drive was only partially explained and more work could have been done here. The drive in particular ties the story together so the adventure seems more non-sequitir if you don't understand it. More frustrating still is that Tracey didn't understand why one might need a towel! Still, as an adventure movie, Hitchhikers succeeds.

Comments:
I was going to take my daughter Tera to see it, she's 10. I'm starting to wonder if she'll be able to follow it.
 
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