Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Synopsis
Everyone has bad mornings. You wake up late, you stub your toe, you burn the toast...but for a man named Arthur Dent, this goes far beyond a bad day. When he learns that a friend of his is actually an alien with advanced knowledge of Earth's impending destruction, he is transported off the Earth seconds before it is exploded to make way for a new hyperspace motorway. And as if that's not enough, throw in being wanted by the police, Earth II, an insane electronic encyclopedia, no tea whatsoever, a chronically depressed robot and the search for the meaning of life, and you've got the greatest adventure off Earth.
I'll say this for it- I came out with the same vague notions as I used to after listening to the H2G2 radio serial...
A desire to slit my wrists.
Just the reasons are different.
One for good sympathetic and very humanitarian reasons, the other is the film.
The object of sympathetic humanitarian reasons is obviously Marvin, who for some reason now looks like an over grown toy robot from Tomi. Gone is the voice so depressed it carry's the weight of the universe on its shoulder, to be replaced with something that in the trailers sounds like Wil Smith in a sound proof box.. Unfortunately, it is not that good.
The real Marvin makes a cameo appearance in the Vogon waiting room though.
Zaphod, too, has had a personality labotomy. In the older versions he made a whole lot of sense, in a zany sort of way. Here they tried to give him some sort of purpose in life and it didn't really manage it. He has a second face instead of a second head and although slicker than the TV series, it manages to look far more fake.
Trillian is at least a saving grace- She isn't Sandra Dickinson.
With the exception of Zaphod's second head, the effects are far more impressive than the BBC series, just not as inventive.
The original radio series rather meandered its way through the story, often appearing not to have any form of goal at all, but making cynical side swipes at humanity as it went. So I expected the film to make a few changes, cutting out the worst of the distractions, perhaps even linking a few together to get a story. But ultimately the film looses much of the originals originality in trying to become too much of a standard film, yet manages to miss any form of story as well.
I don't know how much of the script Adams actually produced before his untimely death, or how far they corrupted it for the film.
But if it is largely his, he should have learned to leave well alone. His original story was bright, funny and original. Then it started to lose a lot of that as successive variations came out. I think the film slips safely into last place below even the ghastly independant audio versions.
I might be seen as being a bit harsh. Undoubtedly anybody who has only ever read the poor book versions will think the film quite good and jolly. But I would highly recommend, should the opportunity arise, they spend a little time with the excellent BBC radio version.
