What this movie does, it does well for the most part, but what it leaves out is frustrating.
The philosophy of the adaptation seems to be "movies need to be plot-driven and linear, and the trade-mark witty dialogue and description of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy does not serve that end." This is why, as far as I can tell, Arthur and Mr. Prosser's dialogue is cut, as well as the Vogon Jeltz' actual response to Arthur's attempt to comment on his poetry, and Ford's subsequent attempt to convince one young Vogon to change career paths. Suffice it to say, all the funniest bits are cut, and I can only hope that they will be in a DVD release.
All that said, what's left is really, genuinely clever. Sam Rockwell's rendition of Zaphod Beeblebrox as a narcissistic pseudo-Texan is totally unexpected and brilliant. The set decoration, costumes, and visual design are consistent and delightful. They didn't necessarily stick with exactly the descriptions from the books, the Vogon Constructor fleet is brown not yello, the Heart of Gold looks nothing like a sport shoe, but what they created has its own feel, its own life. The Vogons looks particularly arresting in all their giant-headed, skinny-limbed Vogonity. Marvin doesn't quite look right, to me (too cute), but Alan Rickman's delivery of Marvin's dialogue was perfect, so I'm willing to forgive, and to see that Marvin's design is meant to be both ironic (cute bot, depressing voice), but also consistent with the Syrius Cybernetics corporation's over-all design of the Heart of Gold.
There are, unfortunately, so bad casting choices. Arthur is a good choice. Martin Freeman, famous for Tim on The Office, would have been the perfect actor for the job, had they given him, you know, lines to say. As it is, he's not particularly active in the plot. Yes, he does some very important things, but most of the character is his undying love for Trillian, which is a very weird rewrite. And on the subject of Trillian... the actress has the right kind of 'girl next door' cuteness (though making her American seems really odd), but she delivers her lines in a way that makes them distinctly unfunny. Her voice borders or the whiny. She's a huge improvement over the Trillian in the BBC TV series, but nowhere near engaging enough for me to buy that Arthur was all that in love with her. Mos Def as Ford is another puzzler. Again, why an American? Black, I have no problem with, but without an actual Guildford accent he lines just aren't funny. Plus, Mos Def mumbles. His dialogue has no emotion and no character.
All in all, I give it a solid 'B.' It entertained me. I laughed (the dolphin water-ballet at the opening is wonderful; from what I know of the man, Douglas Adams would have loved it). It was missing most of the things I really love about The Guide, though, and I hope those things are on some wonderful, magical DVD that will be released just in time for Christmas of next year.
Posted by orion at May 3, 2005 9:47 PM