Mostly Harmless

On Saturday, as a sort of end-of-the-semester treat, I took myself to see The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Here is my review.

Overall, I quite enjoyed the movie. It was fun, generally fast-moving, and quirky. The opening sequence featuring dancing dolphins in a Broadway revue-style musical number ("So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!") was a particularly nice touch. So was the Orbitz / Napster-style animation used for the sequences involving Guide entries. And the effects surrounding the use of the Improbability Drive were very offbeat and clever.

I also liked the way the characters came across. Arthur is not quite such a bumbling idiot as he is in the books. Zaphod comes across as a combination hippie, political shyster, and used-car salesman. In other words, pretty much like the book — but more so. (I found the way they handled his extra head and arm rather interesting, too.) Ford's role is downplayed a little, but Trillian is actually better developed in this movie than in the book. And to top it off, casting Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin was just perfect.

Now, the main complaint I usually have about the cinematic version of a book that I enjoy has to do with the inability of the film to stay true to the book. This happened with this film...but I found that I didn't mind it that much. There were a couple of elements that were original to the movie, as well as expansions of things mentioned only in passing in the book(s). The interplay and relationships between the various main characters (A, F, T, Z, and M) varied from verbatim from the book to completely different in both tone and content. (I can't really say more without spoiling, but when you see it, you'll know what I mean.) In general, where there were changes, I either enjoyed them or at least found them within the spirit of the original work.

If you've read the book(s), you should enjoy this movie. And as it turns out, that leads to my main complaint about the movie. It assumes, in some measure, that anyone seeing it already has a reasonable knowledge of the book. If you haven't read the book(s) recently, you may miss some of what makes it funny, or at least interesting.

Mainly what I noticed was the movie's lack of explanatory detail. For example, we see (I don't consider this a spoiler) Ford and Zaphod 'enjoying' a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster, with the Guide explaining in the background that drinking one is equivalent to having your brains bashed in with a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick. But there's a good bit more about the PGGB that could have been included — like the fact that the Guide tells you how to make one, and that consequently, "the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy sells rather better than the Encyclopedia Galactica".

We also see some bits involving the Vogons (including the obligatory poetry reading), Magrathea, and Deep Thought that were only amusing to me because I remembered what the book had said about them. I think anyone who goes into this movie without having read the book may not find it very entertaining.

So, in short, the movie is almost, but not entirely, unlike the book. But it's still a lot of fun. I give it a B.