The movie was pretty good as a movie by itself, but I don't think it measures up to what it could have been as an incarnation of Hitchhiker's.
GOOD STUFF ABOUT THE MOVIE:
The characters were ALL fabulous. Arthur, Zaphod, and Slartibartfast in particular looked right on. Marvin, the Vogons, and a number of other creatures/concepts were very well done. Alan Rickman as Marvin was perfect. I think the film kept a good pace through most of it; all the good lines were delivered well, etc. I reallly like the new designs for Marvin and the Heart of Gold. The addition of Humma Kavula was great; it kinda fills in a missing part of the plot. (After all, Zaphod had to run against somebody to get elected, right?) The design for Deep Thought, good.
I liked the Guide animation a lot, and even though there was a lot of it, it wasn't overdone. Overall, the movie had a great style that I can really groove with.
BAD STUFF ABOUT THE MOVIE:
It left out SO much stuff that should have been left in: Ford and Prosser; the penguin bit; the creatures on the Vogon ship that let Ford and Arthur in; the rest of the conversation with Deep Thought ("There will be a philosopher's strike!" "And whom would that inconvenience?") and so on. Arthur should have been more preoccupied with finding a cup of tea; that was the only damn thing he wanted in the book, but he hardly mentioned it at all in the movie.
Trillian's character came off as flat to me, but maybe that's just because of
And the way they did Zaphod's second head was just AWFUL. It should've been on his shoulder, just like it was in the radio series, the book, AND the miniseries. Is that so much to ask?
NITPICKY STUFF THAT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER:
The Vogon ships should have been yellow. -- The words that travelled through that freak wormhole were, "I seem to be having terrible difficutly with my life style." -- Slartibartfast barely made mention of Norway, and didn't even utter the word "fjord". He should have gone into that more; after all, that's his big achievement. It won an award, you know. (someone corrected me and said he DID mention the fjords. Maybe I'm wrong.) -- The Vogons spent way too much time chasing after Arthur and Ford. I don't remember all that shit happening in the book; admittedly, though, it's been a while since I read it.
MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS:
Speaking of which, did anybody notice that they decided to go to Milliway's about ten minutes after that feast with the mice? Hmm. -- The doors on the Heart of Gold sighed, but they didn't do their whole spiel: "Thank you for making a simple door happy!" or whatever. I guess it wasn't necessary. -- Arthur had a cell phone, so the movie was clearly modernized. But they had a vinyl record playing at the dress party. Hmm?
OK, I'm just about done here. It's a cool movie, but it doesn't quite measure up to the book. I'll probably get it when it comes out on DVD anyway.
