hitchhiker's guide

saw the movie on Friday - have to admit I was a bit nervous about seeing it: I loved the books so much and was somewhat of the view that (like a George Eliot book) there was a great deal that smiply wouldn't transfer to the screen.

Found the movie "good in parts" (sorry, Kathryn).
There were some bits that were positively excellent - like the casting of Arthur and Ford Prefect, 
and the inimitable Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast.

Trillian was gorgeous; the Vogons suitably obnoxious; and Slartibartfast's trip through the planets under construction was quite wonderful.

But there were some other bits that I thought trawled along very slowly. OK, it was Friday night at the supposed end of a very long and tiring week, with - hurrah for the priesthood - a whole weekend-at-work to look forward to. So maybe I'm not the best person to judge. But I found myself a bit close to dropping off a couple of times...

Comments

[fernando]

Bill Nighy plays Slartibartfast? Oh that *is* inspired casting...

...i grew up on the radioplays and am looking forward to this one, however good it is.

[Peter O]

I found it a monster disappointment after the joy of the radio serials. The slashing of the dialogue in places, and the general storyline in the rest was an utter let-down. The nicking of the BBC theme tune only exacerbated my nostalgia for the "proper version".

That aside, the lemon sherberts we consumed watching it were very nice.

[maggi]

Lemon sherbets! I wish I'd thought of that...

[Mary]

....the woolly people were an inspired touch: straight out of Watch With Mother, or any Christmas Fayre. And as a reformed bureaucrat, I laughed a lot at the Vogon jobsworths. But, perhaps inevitably, the whole was definiteley less than the sum of its parts.

[James]

As much as I like to flog the dictum that "books are books and movies are movies," this was one situation where I couldn't manage to divorce myself enough from my attachment to the novels such that I could buy a ticket in good conscience.

I imagine I'll end up seeing the film when it makes its way to cable, which is blasphemy from a standpoint of cinematic purity, but the only way I'll probably be able to manage watching it guilt-free.

[-ash]

I didn't like Trillian much... she was a bit... vacant. But miles better than TV Trillian. Slarti was great IMO, although people keep poking me for saying that...

was a good movie in the end, better than I expected. Grand Master Fry as the book worked well, and the original theme music from the Radio Show was a nice touch.... as was the Dolphin sequence in the begining!

I may buy this movie. I don't buy movies often. Not since LOTR went all extended-box-set on us...

[Keith Brenton]

Well, since I'm from the other side of the pond, I never heard the radio series and almost regretted watching the video series (it was so painfully underbudgeted).

Trotted off to see this film with expectations well reined in. I was just ruined for a week after seeing it. Haunted by the dolphins singing so long so long and thanks for all the fish. Haunted by what might have happened if Arthur Dent had suddenly sprouted courage and gone to Madagascar. Haunted by the all-too-familiar depression of Marvin and the boredom of Deep Thought. Haunted most of all by the possibility that all the rest of the world views Christendom the way I perceive the followers of Humma Kavula - sitting around waiting for the return of the Great Handkerchief.

I just felt like sighing like the malfunctioning door on the Heart of Gold all last week.

[rowan]

I think Keith's on to something there- that's exactly how we were meant to see Christians, and presumably followers of other religions too. In fact, it struck me all the way through that Douglas Adams' atheism came across much more clearly in the film than I remember from the books or the TV series. That didn't stop me enjoying it- after all, I have made a life's work out of trying to become Marvin- but it makes me uneasy.
I belong to a religion which wants people to join. Why then does it make me uncomfortable when I see propaganda for 'the other side' disguised as entertainment? Because it isn't explicit, and you need to be fairly theologically literate to spot it at all? Or because I just believe that their world view is profoundly mistaken and it makes me sad that we Christians obviously can't communicate what we really stand for?