Hitchikers Guide To the Galaxy Returns

[nath]

And there's no y in it either!

Bloomin northerners :\

 

[dysfunction]

It should be pronounced Za-Phod (a sound as in "sad") ffs!!

 

[Chilly]

radio show was zay-fod

 

[adams901]

Having Just watched this movie I can honestly say that it was a lot better than I expected it to be, I went to the screening with no expectations and left feeling glad I had spent the time to go and watch it.

The film is very similar to the TV series although it does have its obvious differences, Alan Rickman does a great voice over performance as Marvin the robot and Martin Freeman (in my opinion) fills the role of Arthur Dent well. I don't really wanna say to much incase people yell spoilers The Original Arthur Dent has a cameo role and there is a small love story that fits in with the film and doesn't seem out of place.

After the screening there was a Q&A session from the Producers and also from Martin Freeman.

• The Film cost Sixty Million Pounds to produce
• The amount spent releasing the film is Four Million Pounds (they told us this is the most ever spent on releasing a film)
• Many book to film conversions try to better accommodate people not familiar with the books, it was explained that the film was made with the fans in mind and that it is intended as a tribute to Douglas Adams, the first closing credit is "For Douglas".
• There are new characters in the film, some are the creation of Douglas Adams which never left rough sketches or notes (apparently they had full access to all his material) and some have been written by the co-writer.
• The screenplay written by Douglas Adams was apparently by his own admission incomplete and needed modifying before it could be turned into a big screen adventure.
• There are no current plans to make a sequel although the film is obviously left wide open incase they do
• Martin Freeman admits he would like to do a sequal if the same crew are used but he also admits that has has just spent 5 years as Tim out of the office and doesn't want to spend the next 10 years as Arthur Dent. They then go on to say that if there is a sequel it will be a long way off as it's no use spending a couple of months making a sequel to a film that took 25 years to arrive.

All in all I dont think it will dissapoint fans although im sure some will find holes to pick.

 

[xane]

http://www.planetmagrathea.com/shortreview.html

 

[adams901]

heh guess im just easily pleased , although many of those at the screening were hitchiker fans and said the movie was almost true to the book.

The screenplay by Douglas was a collection or short scenes, of course you cant make a movie based on short scenes and so they were obviously changed a little.

Not forgetting that the is only so much you can do in 90 minutes.

I didnt really watch the TV series bug have read the books.

 

[dysfunction]

Movie Premier in London Today!!

W00t!

 

[DaGaffer]

Just seen it

Spoiler

What a pile of shit. Basically, they removed, scene-by-scene, the one thing that made hgttg great; the dialogue. It was almost like they did it on purpose.

Pluses: the effects were OK, Bill Nighy was OK, as was Sam Rockwell (you are actually supposed to hate Zaphod, so he did his job); the Vogons were well done, Stephen Fry was a good choice for the Guide and there were some nice in-jokes. And I liked the opening with the dolphins. That was about it.

Minuses: Changes to the plot that did nothing to move the story on, but seemed to be there because they wanted to give John Malkovich a cameo and they like the phrase "Great Green Arkleseizure"; the Guide graphics which didn't look as good as the hand-drawn ones from 25 years ago; the 'wimping up' of Arthur (he was never a coward before, just bewildered); poor sound effects and editing (how hard would it have been to give Alan Rickman's voice an effect to make him sound...robotic? He sounds like exactly what he is, a voiceover); Helen Mirren as Deep Thought - same again, I could forgive the change if she actually sounded like A BIG FUCKING COMPUTER, but it was just a voice, and once again all the best bits of Deep Thought's dialogue were cut out; Mos Def as Ford -phoned it in; finally, worst of all - it just wasn't very funny

 

[SawTooTH]

It was okay but then how can you improve on something everyone knows so well.

 

[Bloop]

I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to go with a group of friends in dressing gowns, slippers, waving towels and shouting 'don't panic!'. It'll be like Rocky Horror, with less suspenders and more English tea.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't as bad as many people have said - though as a screen adaptation of a story that has been twisted and edited so many times already by the author himself, I'm keeping open minded to changes they've made.

Not going to complain til I've seen it, I promise. Only, I don't like Marvin. Or that they got rid of the restaurant at the end of the universe. Or that Zaphod doesn't have two heads. I'll stop complaining now.

 

[nath]

Tbh Gaffer - I think you're being a bit hard. It wasn't amazing, but I thought it was fairly good. Bill Nighy wasn't OK, he was bloody brilliant (imo) and so was Sam Rockwell - he was perfect for the role.

Bloop - the restaurant at the end of the universe was the second book - wasn't in the first.

Oh and Bill Bailey as the whale - inspired

 

[DaGaffer]

Tbh Gaffer - I think you're being a bit hard. It wasn't amazing, but I thought it was fairly good. Bill Nighy wasn't OK, he was bloody brilliant (imo) and so was Sam Rockwell - he was perfect for the role.

Bloop - the restaurant at the end of the universe was the second book - wasn't in the first.

Oh and Bill Bailey as the whale - inspired

I really wanted to like it, but almost every scene reminded me of someone's girlfriend trying to tell a joke and getting it wrong...

 

[xane]

Ok, saw this last night.

A few points:
* I have a signed copy of So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.
* I have an original H2G2 paperback, signed by Mark Wing Davey (original Zaphod).
* I have the towel, computer game, etc.
* I have the radio series, including the Tertiary Phase, and the TV Series.
* I still have my badge from the one of the first H2G2 conventions in the UK.

I consider myself a "fan"

If you are one too, do not, under any circumstances, go and see this film in the cinema.

Wait for DVD release, then buy it, and microwave it before you see it.

I honestly felt like walking out the cinema, but that would have meant waking up my girlfriend beside me, she was obviously enjoying it more than me.

Imagine someone took the first book, removed all the jokes, then filled in gaps after having his sense of humour removed. Adams wrote a masterpiece, then he did Dirk Gently, then he did Starship Titanic, you could see he was not improving, this script is an apt continuation of the demise of a genius.

The Vogon poetry scene, did not have any Vogon poetry. But the effect of Vogon poetry was best represented by me having to sit through this crap.

I'm going to find Adams' grave and install a spit and make him spin.

 

[Bloop]

Tbh Gaffer - I think you're being a bit hard. It wasn't amazing, but I thought it was fairly good. Bill Nighy wasn't OK, he was bloody brilliant (imo) and so was Sam Rockwell - he was perfect for the role.

Bloop - the restaurant at the end of the universe was the second book - wasn't in the first.

Oh and Bill Bailey as the whale - inspired

Ach, I know - I was under the impression they'd squished all the books into one film. I'm bloody relieved actually, I can't imagine how they could have managed merging them all together.

 

[nath]

Oh God no, faaaar too much stuff to cram in to one film.

 

[Yaka]

i thought the film was preety good, but considering the tv eps i watched was when i was wee little lad and can not remeber much about. but the cinema was full of grumpy old gits pointing and talking about things different or not right or even skipped out loud.

 

[Bloop]

i thought the film was preety good, but considering the tv eps i watched was when i was wee little lad and can not remeber much about. but the cinema was full of grumpy old gits pointing and talking about things different or not right or even skipped out loud.

Grumpy old gits like me, then.

Nah, I just grumbled afterwards. It was, as a film, fairly decent. As an adaptation, mediocre. I didn't like it.

I thought some of the acting was a bit dodgy, the humour (as mentioned before) has changed, and some parts have been dropped I'd rather they'd not have cut. It didn't seem to follow any distinguishable plotline and confused the heck out of my friends who hadn't read the books.

I also really, really did not like the music.

 

[Bloop]

Also, due to the squeaky crabs (which I confess I love! Eeee! *squeaak*) I kept expecting the seagulls from Finding Nemo to drop out of the sky and start saying 'Mine! Mine!'.

 

[Frizz]

Saw this yesterday, liked it. Not OMG AMAZING, but I'd say it's worth owning on DVD. I've never seen the TV shows of yore, nore read the books, so I went into the cinema a "Douglas Adams Humour Newie". As a result it's likely I enjoyed the film more because of it.

 

[leggy]

Douglas adams actually wrote the screenplay.

Transferring a book like this to the big screen is not possible..

Xane is a whining old man

 

[DaGaffer]

Douglas adams actually wrote the screenplay.

Transferring a book like this to the big screen is not possible..

Xane is a whining old man

Douglas Adams wrote a screenplay; no-one's saying how much of that made it to the final edit. And frankly I don't care if every word of his script made it on to the screen, its still a sad emasculation of the earlier versions (signed - another whining old man).

 

[Ormorof]

i quite enjoyed the movie, but i may be considered abit of a geek

i loved the radio show, loved the TV series (though it screams low budget ), loved the books

as mentioned before though there were some parts and jokes i would have prefered to have been in there, though i can understand it may have been hard to convert alot of the stuff to a movie

 

[Tom]

I saw this last night. I wasn't expecting great things, but in general I liked the film. I thought the fella who did Arthur Dent was perfect, although I'm not sure about Trillian - the TV series Trillian with her shrill voice has kind of stuck in my head.

Ford Prefect didn't really seem to do.....well anything really. I didn't understand what role he was meant to play. In the series, its quite obvious hes a bit of a travelling loon who knows a trick or two, but in the film hes just some guy that Arthur met, who funny things sometimes happen to.

The Vorgons were fantastic, although they could have read a bit more poetry tbh.

Zaphod was great, really liked his character. Slartibartfast was excellent as well (original A.Dent?), superbly acted.

The biggest disappointment character-wise was Marvin. Basically, he totally sucked. Not even remotely funny, the original Marvin (who I spotted later heh) was much much better. Its probably the voice more than anything, Alan Rickman just sounded a bit sad. The original Marvin sounded like depression incarnate.

I thought the film was a bit rushed and didn't really have much of a plot (so to speak), but thats fine. The editing was pretty poor though, there was hardly any emphasis on character development. Just a few seconds here, a minute of silence there, and it would have flowed much more easily.

Anyway, I'm glad I saw it, bit disappointed, but still worth the 6 quid to get in.

 

[xane]

Transferring a book like this to the big screen is not possible.

The qualifying post was the TV Series.

The TV Series was very true to the book, an excellent amalgamation and abridgement of the first two books, and above all it captured a lot of the humour, irony and expression that made Adams' writing so brilliant.

What let the TV Series down was the dodgy costumes and special effects and actors who were a little wooden but plausable because they understood Adams' humour mainly because most of them had previously worked on the radio series.

All that was required for the Film was to take this same formula, add CGI, some decent actors, and let it take its course, in this it totally failed and because it lost all the underlying ethos of the original story, it turned out a bit crap even from a non-H2G2 perspective.

 

[xane]

Slartibartfast was excellent as well (original A.Dent?),

The original Arthur Dent, Simon Jones, appeared as the holographic recording warning to stay away from Magrathea.

 

[leggy]

Don't get me wrong xane I do agree generally. I was really dissapointed with the film in just about every respect bar the Vogons. I thought they were recreated fairly well.

I have to agree with Tom on ford too. They took a character and made him pointless.

Douglas adams aside it was a fairly weak film on it's own merits.

 

[xane]

... bar the Vogons.

Okay, agree on this point as they were excellent Henson creations and the way their over-bureaucratic mannerisms was brilliantly done.

Like when the Vogon captain says "... and all leave is cancelled, I've just had an unhappy love affair and I don't see why anyone else should have a good time". Oh, he doesn't.

And the fantastic Vogon poetry, except you couldn't hear it.

And that side-splitting scene where Ford tries to convince the Vogon guard to let them go, the moment of sheer comic genius when he humms Beethovens Fifth ... except that never happens.

What about that immortal line "Resistance Is Useless" blurted out with an air of authority and senselessness, the vocal epitome of what being a Vogon is all about ? Oh yes, that became just a murmered comment as the airlock door is closed.

Or perhaps the satirical relationship the Vogons have with the Dentrassi cooks, and the way the Dentrassi, being the best cooks in the universe, delight in ways to get the Vogons to eat the most distgusting meals and annoy them by letting Hitchhikers on board ... well, if there had been Dentrassi in the film that is, which there wasn't.

I kind of get the idea that if you are going to take the Vogons from the books and represent them in the film then perhaps they should be, like, er, Vogons, not some vaguely similar concept.

The Vogons were good, but they were not the Vogons from the book.

And I couldn't give a crap if Adams intended this or not.

And why is, for example, the relationship between the Dentrassi and the Vogons so important, especially at the beginning of the story ? The need to know such information is the reason "The Book" exists in the first place, in case you've forgotten "The Book" being "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy".

The story is made utterly meaningless by leaving out this stuff.

 

[Garaen]

Just seen it now and thought it was shite, it was painful sitting through it for me. There was little plot and it seemed to be just random events occuring, there was little explanation on various aspects (for example i would have like to know more about that ring/hitchhikers). I've never read the books so that may be a reason why i didn't enjoy it as much. The main character (i don't remember his name it was that depressing) wasn't the greatest, all i could see was the acter from "the office" in space. I also had little empathy for the characters and frankly wouldn't have cared if they had been killed off. I also thought the romance in the film was poorly introduced and maintained. Some of the jokes were quite funny and gave the film a redeming quality, however many of the jokes were indeed not funny and just added to my pain. Overall i was pleased when the credits came up and i could go for a pint. Really not my film. (The two people i was with however thought it was "alright" so maybe i'm just a grumpy bastard)

 

[DaGaffer]

Just seen it now and thought it was shite, it was painful sitting through it for me. There was little plot and it seemed to be just random events occuring, there was little explanation on various aspects (for example i would have like to know more about that ring/hitchhikers). I've never read the books so that may be a reason why i didn't enjoy it as much. The main character (i don't remember his name it was that depressing) wasn't the greatest, all i could see was the acter from "the office" in space. I also had little empathy for the characters and frankly wouldn't have cared if they had been killed off. I also thought the romance in the film was poorly introduced and maintained. Some of the jokes were quite funny and gave the film a redeming quality, however many of the jokes were indeed not funny and just added to my pain. Overall i was pleased when the credits came up and i could go for a pint. Really not my film. (The two people i was with however thought it was "alright" so maybe i'm just a grumpy bastard)

Trust me, if you had read the books/listened to the radio/seen the tv series, you'd have hated it even more.

NB. 'That ring' is just an 'electronic thumb' - designed for hitchhikers to flag a ride.

 

[Dommers]

As always, the books are better than the films. The characters never looked like u imagined them to be