... but I reserve the right to bitch about the casting of Zooey Deschanel until the heat-death of the universe. Fuck, she was a pain.

Bill Nighy was perfect.

That's too bad. I really liked her in Almost Famous, I had high hopes.

In Response to porcupine8 (#27108):

It wasn't so much anything she did that bugged me, it's that she was totally wrong for the part. So instead of casting someone more suitable, they rewrote the charater and turned Trillian from a highly intelligent, competent, but slightly cold English woman into a 'wacky' American who reminded me, primarily, of Abby from NCIS. Personal beef, I suppose.

I can get behind plot, script and timeline rewrites, because 'canon' in Hitchhikers is non-existent, but I do think they could have tried harder to maintain the spirit of the trilogy - misanthropic depression, bureaucratic small-mindedness and an enormous amount of supressed anger. The whole movie was far too cheerful. But also quite fun.

In Response to tynic (#27109):

Wow. I don't think I've ever been more disappointed with a movie in my entire life. I even thought LotR had more in common with its namesake than HHGTTG. Only this and Return of the King have I gotten up and left before the ending. I even sat all the way through Saw (although yelling frequently at the screen).

I expected that it wasn't going to follow the book to the letter, and considering I just now finished the fifth book this morning before heading out to the theatre, I should have been able to look at it as someone who isn't a die-hard fan and just enjoy the film. However, I think anyone who hasn't read the book is going to be just as confused as to what the hell this was about.

It's also just uncomfortable to watch. The actors seem like they've been fed lines which they neither understand nor care about, and thus are just reading them to get the whole thing over with. I think the best example of this is Ford Prefect, who says his lines with almost no emotional investment what-so-ever. I definitely agree about Trillian though, she just seemed awkward and confused as to what the hell was going on. The opening sequence with the dolphins should have been an immediate sign for me to get up and go demand my money back. At times it has fine special effects, such as the zooming out of the Vogon ships, and the planet factory on Magrathea, but those were pretty much the highlight. The rest of the time it feels like they ran over budget and dragged extras off the street, then fitted them with cardboard, cotton balls, and a thin layer of spray paint.

Three thumbs down.

In Response to evilinc (#27118):

I expected that it wasn't going to follow the book to the letter

Read the book, listen to the radio plays, watch the miniseries. All have huge glaring differences, and this is intentional on Douglas Adams' part. He didn't want the same experience just replicated in different mediums.

I think anyone who hasn't read the book is going to be just as confused as to what the hell this was about.

Again, the point. You are following the story of Arthur Dent, who is plucked out of his comfortably boring British life (in fact D.A. said he's just about the only character that HAS to be English) and thrown into a universe too incredibly absurd for anyone to understand. (There's a whole subplot in one of the books about a character trying to understand the entire universe.)

the best example of this is Ford Prefect, who says his lines with almost no emotional investment

Again, the point of the character.

In Response to Dynedain (#27119):

In general, I liked it. The pacing was pretty bad, and I think that anyone who hadn't read the book was probably pretty lost. But then, that's what you get when you put a hack music video director at the helm. Hopefully there will be a Director's Cut DVD that takes time to breathe.

But the good: I thought the casting was quite good. Best: Arthur and Ford, who were essential for them to get right. Arthur especially, and Mos Def proved that he's a pretty good actor. He was just weird enough to pull it off without being an over-the-top look-how-crazy-I-am alien.

Zaphod WAS over-the-top, but that was the point. Having his second head come out of his chest cavity was kinda dumb, but oh well. And he was a little too "Texas" for my taste.

But anyway, I still enjoyed it a lot. And I hope it makes enough money that they decide to make the other books into movies too. I'd love to see the completely uninteresting sky of Krikkit, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the Guide headquarters, God's Last Message, etc.

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#27120):

Forgot a few things.

The music was pretty good. That SL&TFATF song was just bizarre, and it was cool to hear the theme from the TV movie, and we even got to see the old Marvin!

My experience was ruined somewhat by the group sitting behind me, who thought that the best way for everyone to enjoy the movie was for them to laugh really really loud at everything, and recite the lines with the characters. They even dressed in bathrobes and brought towels. And they were in their 30's. Sigh...

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#27121):

I actually liked the song, not for itself, but because the one thing I wasn't expecting from the movie was to be surprised. I really didn't htink there was anything they could do to startle me, and that song just took me completely unawares, so I actually really enjoyed it.

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#27121):

I think that the highpoint for me was the remix of The Sorcerer's Apprentice when the Guide was introduced. I must procure it!

I'll have to concur that, for me, this was perhaps the most obnoxious audience ever. Christ. And the most obnoxious of them even had the gall to loudly disparage the Serenity trailer.

I found the original material pretty entertaining, and the visuals gratifying. The Vogons could've stood to have had clearer enunciation for my liking, but were good enough.

The pacing was terrible, but I think my most pressing issue with it was that it was rather too dense with text. I felt like I'd've been rather rushed if I wasn't already familiar with the source material.

The final frame of DNA in the last improbability jump was a nice touch.

I shan't see it again, but I wasn't really disappointed. It takes a rare movie for me to be compelled to see it multiple times.

In Response to mcgrue (#27124):

arg.

s/Sorcerer's Apprentice/Journey of a Sorcerer/

windows media/realplayer samples of the new version, track 8 [amazon.com]

"The history of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is now so complicated that every time I tell it I contradict myself, and whenever I do get it right I'm misquoted. So the publication of this omnibus edition seemed like a good opportunity to set the record straight - or at least firmly crooked. Anything that is put down wrong here is, as far as I'm concerned, wrong for good"

First paragraph from the Introduction: A GUIDE TO THE GUIDE.

I have one question and one question only to ask: What in the Hell were they thinking? [1]

[1]Elaboration to come later - I'm tired.

I am not sure if I really laughed at Rockwell doing Bush.

Yes, yes, two headed blah blah blah...

I'd have bought it if it were Tony Blair. But I wouldn't have known it was Tony Blair.

Zooey had her ups and downs. Anyone who didn't expect a major Hollywood production to include a love story that wasn't there to begin with has been... what? Stupid for their entire life? ... not paying attention, I guess. I think generally she wasn't nearly as bored and snitty as I expected, nor quite as shallow and chic.

I will probably start posting ""s anytime someone says anything resembling "I think" or "I've got an idea". I don't think I intend to, but I expect it will be compulsory for a bit now.

In Response to FeldmanSkitzoid (#27121):

hey, i took a towel to the movie. i skipped the bathrobe though...it honestly didn't occur to me. and i didn't laugh really really loud through the movie, because i just didn't find it that funny.

overall i was fairly disappointed. the pacing was pretty off, and the girl playing trillian irritated the hell out of me.

i have to say my favourite part was when they all turned into yarn dolls. and alan rickman as marvin.

In Response to GeminiCrash (#27129):

The Bad:

I too was very irritated by the girl playing Trillian, but that was the least of the problems with the movie.

I think the thing that bothered me most was that they spent more time and money on scenes that didn't even occur in the book than they did on scenes that actually "happened" - this covers a lot of things that I thought went wrong with the movie.

One word: Zaphod.

Ok, the opening sequence should have told me to get up and walk very quickly for the exit; but I didn't because I was hoping that it wouldn't last long and wasn't actually a reflection of how the rest of the movie would be. That whole song and dance got old pretty quickly.

I wasn't too thrilled by about where they "had" Deep Thought. The scenary was all wrong. And those kids...*gets heebeejeebees*

I was under the impression that Marvin was supposed to be man-sized, like a regular android; but I wasn't too upset with how they portrayed him.

So, The Good - what little there was of it:

The Vogons
The Babel Fish - not what I had imagined but I liked their idea
Alan Rickman
Mos Def as Ford - again, not what/who I had imagined but surprisingly good.
Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent - I thought he did a really good job.
Ford and Arthur as couches
The Yarn Scene
The Heart of Gold in General even though it didn't look how I thought it should look
There were occassional funny scenes that did make me laugh; but overall....

I still think it sucked.