Hitchhikers Guide = Crapola?

[absolutezero]

Slashdot Article (http://slashdot.org/articles/05/04/10/1447214.shtml?tid=97&tid=214)

Reading this dash's my hope for a great film, the trailers have been promising so far. Let's hope this isn't right.

[Weapon X]

MJ Simpson's review will hopefully represent an overwhelmed minority regarding the critical reaction to the Hitchhiker's Guide movie...and, based on all the advance reviews published so far, does.

[chinton]

I cant get the review to come up. Im curious to see how he liked the book as I know numerous people who cant stand the book and therefore think the movie look s pretty stupid.

[GoldenGhost]

How bizarre does this film look! I seen it advertised on the telly box last night and at first I thought it was an ad for the new Dr. Who or friggin Duracell. Looks off the wall to me, I’m curious.

[Cronos]

i think it'll be great, i love the books and from the trailer this looks excellent and like it'll be a lot of fun

[Weapon X]

Originally posted by chinton
I cant get the review to come up. Im curious to see how he liked the book as I know numerous people who cant stand the book and therefore think the movie look s pretty stupid.

MJ Simpson is a Douglas Adams biographer. I think it's safe to say he loves the books/radio series as much as any other hardcore fan. Still, his review is only one negative opinion outnumbered by, like, ten positive ones so far, and all have been from proud Hitchhiker's Guide fans.

Not everyone's gonna be pleased, no matter how good the movie is.

I simply repeat to myself the words on the Guide's cover: DON'T PANIC.

[JCPhoenix]

that's a well-written review that does have some extensive (and fair) criticisms but personally, i'd wait and just hope for the best. I think Hammer & Tongs (the directors) are geniuses, as their music videos for Blur's Coffee & TV, Fatboy Slim's Right Here, Right Now, and REM's Imitation of Life have proven to be some of the best videos out there. Again, this might not translate into a great movie necessarily, but they certainly show some great humor (look no further than the Coffee & TV video) that gives me hope that the movie will be good.

Besides, I've read one or two other reviews, and they seemed to enjoy it.

[chilli pepper]

I doubt it. I havent read the book and all i'm going off of is the two or three different trailers i've seen, but the probability of this sucking (at least in MY MIND) is low. Very low. In all honesty I think this could take Sin City for best of the year, in my opinion.

[ilovemovies]

From what I've seen in the trailers (have not read the book) the humor appears to be of the hit or miss variety. But one thing is pretty clear from ALL of the trailers I've seen: This is going to be a visually amazing movie. It's a very great looking movie from the trailers. Some truly astonishing visual effects.

And I LOVE Zooey Deschnel so that is another thing this movie has going for it for me.

[Sigur509]

It looks alright. But I'll see it for Martin Freeman. He was great in the Office.

And I'm also in love with Zooey Deschnel.

[Tuukka]

The "review" is basicly a sentence-by-sentence analysis of what is different in the movie when compared to the book. It's not a review, it's a purist rant from someone who expected the cinema screen to have pages of HGTTG printed on screen for two hours.

The point is: No matter how great the film might be, he would STILL hate it. Even if the film would be perfect, flawless, he would still hate it.

It's also worth mentioning that Adams himself wrote the script this movie is based on. Sure, it went through rewrites like scripts always do, but fundamentally it's still a movie written by Douglas Adams. So ironically this "reviewer" is critizicing the movie for changing the original text and not staying true to the writings of Adams, when in fact the changes were made by Adams himself.

[ukcats]

This guy seems like he has some chip on his shoulder. What does he expect? If they put everything in the movie it would be like 10 hours long. All the other reviews I have read have been overwhelmingly positive.

Here's on from Empire Online:
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/incinemas/ReviewInFull.asp?FID=9807

"DON'T PANIC, fervent Douglas Adamites. This movie adaptation of the TV adaptation of the novelisation of the radio series is about as faithful as you can get. Yes, it's been tweaked and twizzled, with a romance inserted here, a new character plopped down there, but everything you love about The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy remains intact - not to mention reinvigorated by its big-screen reincarnation."

[Sandstone]

I think the trailer looked amazing, i am dying to see this.. i love the part where the guy whips up the devil horns like a rock concert.. sweet...

[bigred760]

The book(s) are absolutely hysterical and the first one is one of my favorites. I'm going to watch the movie just to see how well it was adapted. I'm hoping the humor is translated well onscreen; it would be a freakin' shame if it doesn't.

[HedwigX]

This is what the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has to say about the movie, which by an amazing coincidence, is also called "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"...

Don't Panic...

Seriously people, this movie is gonna rock, and that's if it's only half as good as the books. Remember, Adams wrote the screenplay for this film and if it's endured casting changes from Jim Carrey to Sam Rockwell, then it's gotta be a damn fine piece of screenplay...

Plus, there's the trailers so far, which look utterly fantastic, and perfect casting of Alan Rickman as Marvin. Read the book and imagine Rickman's voice, then you will believe... :D

Also, Martin Freeman looks fantastic in the role of Arthur because he, just like he was in "The Office", is the embodiment of a British everyman. So watch the trailer, make a note of the release date and go to plan the next few months of your life. :D

[gspawn]

From what "the negative review" said, this movie is going to be a total crapfest fer meh.

The source material is trashed beyond anything that I could ever call an "adaptation". Nearly ALL of the character's motivations have been changed completely, the plot has been COMPLETELY reorganized from any format the series has EVER been placed in, and the essential nuggets of British-ness that made the series unique have apparently been hacked out in favor of generic crappiness. ALL of my favorite moments from the series are pretty much ALL gone. The ones that do are a sliver of their former selves and have been chopped to nothingness.

This flick is going to be Troy with no nudity and no kickass fight scenes.

*tiny spoilerbits begin to commence*

I already think the movie looks retarded- Marvin does not look like anything that should ever be in this kind of film, Trillian is wearing pajamas, Zaphod looks like he just stepped out of Fast Times at Ridgemont High... neither Zaphod or Marvin should ever have a gun (merchandising digs, anyone? ugh). They also placed in the "Hogpod" landing craft for more merchandising, despite showing the Heart of Gold landing on a planet just a few scenes before. The ENTIRE subplot about Deep Thought was screwed, ALL of the character's reactions to the Ultimate Answer have been frigged... Troy all over again.

*spoilerbits end*

[Jon Lyrik]

I don't think people realize this is not supposed to be a faithful adaptation of the books. The whole franchise didn't even start as books, they started as a radio series, then loosely adapted into a book series, also loosely adapted into a video game. DNA made the story very different in each medium intentionally.

[gspawn]

Originally posted by Jon Lyrik
I don't think people realize this is not supposed to be a faithful adaptation of the books. The whole franchise didn't even start as books, they started as a radio series, then loosely adapted into a book series, also loosely adapted into a video game. DNA made the story very different in each medium intentionally.

And ALL of those works are MUCH more closely related to each other than this movie. What "the bad reviewer" is saying is that it's that exact DNA which was extracted- and after reading the spoiler-laden version, I don't see much room for any of that essential stuff that made the series so great. They've taken out or scrubbed basically every single one of my favorite bits of the series [no spoilers]. And all of those bits were fairly constant- I've listened to the radio show and read the books, and they both contain (almost) all of these elements. If I'm not mistaken, the TV series covered most as well. The movie? Urinated on them almost universally.

That's more than "loose".

[ukcats]

Have you guys seen the whale clip on Yahoo yet? Hilarious!

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thehitchhikersguidetothegalaxy.html

[Jamesadin]

Sam Rockwell made that clip! Hilarious!

And Marvin the Depressed Robot was pretty awesome too.

[Weapon X]

I hearby nominate "So Long & Thanks For All The Fish" for next year's Best Original Song award! Who's with me?

[Tuukka]

So Long and Thanks for All the Fish 8/10
Vogsphere Slaps 7/10
Whale 9/10

...Looking good so far.

[ukcats]

Originally posted by Weapon X
I hearby nominate "So Long & Thanks For All The Fish" for next year's Best Original Song award! Who's with me?

I am so with you! That clip was my fave. These clips have renewed my faith in the film.