Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Movie was beautiful to watch. It was elegant and funny. It incessantly tipped its hat to the book and at the BBC series.
The environment was lush and exciting but certainly not campy like the series. The characters were smart, especially Trillian, who was believable as having a “degree in Maths and another in astrophysics.”
I liked Mos Def as Ford Prefect. Until Sam Rockwell came on screen as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford was the most compelling character, Of course, not even Marvin could take attention away from Rockwell, who was able to have all the charm of President Clinton — even the voice cadence and intonation — and all the clueless naivete of President Bush.
Martin Freeman, who played Arthur Dent, came across brilliantly “as a nervous worried man” (a wet towel?).
My favorite lines were delivered brilliantly and they did a great job of picking and choosing. For example, in the pub, Ford deadpans, “Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so.”
I wish they had made Marvin a little smaller (he was huge and lumbering) and quite a bit more lithe. Considering the technological prowess, he looked like a dwarf in a robot suit.
Of course, I would have liked more of the most famous lines, especially more on the babel fish, such as, “The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn’t it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don’t. QED.’
That said, I understand that 110 minutes isn’t enough time to explore every page of the guide or indulge in all the humor. That said, the Radio Show and the Series were quite a bit longer and has much more time in which to explore every nook and cranny.
With only a couple hours with which to explore the rich biosphere of the first book, I believe the most important purpose that this movie played is in giving our book new life, a new audience, and quite possibly, a trilogy
