I've talked about the book on the making of the movie elsewhere. Now, I'm going to talk about the DVD. WARNING — There WILL be some spoilers ahead. If you'd rather not know how the movie turns out, don't go any further.
{spoiler space}
Ok — you were warned. There is a lot to love about this movie. The Vogons look exactly the way I'd always expected them to. They didn't over high-tech the Guide itself. Marvin the Paranoid Android is perfect. Fans of the books will also appreciate some inside jokes — when Ford "swears" at one point, he says "Belgium Bummer," thus qualifying the film for the Rory Award for Most Gratuitous Use of the Word "Belgium" in a Serious Screenplay. Ford is also called "Ix" repeatedly by those who didn't know him on Earth, referring to his adoptive name in the books (it means "boy who is not able satisfactorily to explain what a Hrung is, nor why it should choose to collapse on Betelgeuse Seven," and is a way-inside joke for those who read the books). Of course, Ford's name has always been an in-joke that American audiences never got, but I digress ...
The movie reflects Douglas Adams' low opinion of religion, as shown in the scenes on Viltvodle VI. The residents of that planet are unique in the universe, because they believe that the entire universe was sneezed out of the nose of the Great Green Arklesiezure, and live in fear of the Coming of the Great White Handkerchief. Adams never missed an opportunity to skewer organized religion in general in his books, but the movie includes only this example.
I did question something that I found out in reading about the filming of the movie that I didn't think was clear in the movie. Trillian's brain wasn't suitable for the mice's purposes because, in the movie, she is half alien. I didn't notice that ever being made clear in the movie itself — Adams worked around that by saying that Trillian had been absent from Earth for too long before its destruction to be useful.
Fans will be disappointed in some scenes that were left out. There are no Dentrassis on the Vogon ships. There is no protracted argument with the guard over culture and career possibilities. The plotline with Deep Thought is highly abbreviated, as is the Magrathea plot line. But anyone who has followed the Hitchhiker's Guide in its many incarnations (radio series, books, TV series, computer game, and now movie) will be aware that no incarnation is totally faithful to the others; in fact, Adams seems to go out of his way to make the different forms ... different, and sometimes contradictory. So, while I missed the absence of some of my favorite Hitchhiker's bits, their absence wasn't enough to ruin the movie for me.
Article comments
1 - D L Ennis
I thought the movie itself was a joke...a waste of money!
D L
2 - Warren
I wanted to like the movie. I'd been looking forward to it for years. WHen Adams died, I got worried that it would get "Hollywooded," and it did.
There are still some good moments, but I'd rather read the books. Of course, that's what I usually think when I watch a movie based on a novel.
3 - Matty
It was brave to take it on...but was never going to work when most of the quintissentially English humour had been taken out and The Guide treated as some kind of afterthought.
Still, at least it was a good chance for Alan Rickman (as ever) to steal yet another film - this time without even appearing on screen.
Go for the radio series instead, folks.
Matty
4 - Warren
The radio show is excellent. The original format, after all. Adams had more control over the books, though.
If you have to watch it, the old TV show is better than the movie in many ways. Only thing the movie has in it's favor there is the special effects.
And the Vogons. They were perfect.