I finally went to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. I’d read a few positive reviews, but many more critical ones before seeing it – most notably MJ Simpson’s scathing review on the now sadly closed Planet Magrathea.
I really wanted to like this film. I’ve been a fan since reading the books as a child in the 1980s, and I’ve been waiting since then to see this film. But although I’m glad I finally saw it, I really don’t think it worked. I’m not sure how easily anyone unfamiliar with the radio series or books would have followed the story – it moved along at a frenetic pace and almost felt rushed – although I suppose in the current movie climate a sub-two-hour film is relatively short.
Yes, there were some amusing parts, particularly a few lines from Simon Jones‘ cameo appearance. But the majority of the dialogue had been savagely reworded – the best dialogue jokes from the book were present in part, but often bafflingly lacked either the necessary setup lines, or indeed the punchlines.
Much as I wanted MJ Simpson to be wrong, I’m afraid he was more or less entirely correct. It was slightly better than he’d led me to expect, but not much. I was expecting it to be the worst film I’d ever seen, but in fact it was only the worst film I’ve seen since The Passion Of The Christ, which was commendably worse. Still, Hitchhiker’s was a very bad film. I can add nothing to his comprehensive review, (which contains spoilers for those who haven’t seen the movie) here.
I’m glad I saw it. I’m nothing if not a completist, and at least now I can add the movie to the not inconsiderable list of incarnations in which I’ve experienced (or, in the case of the final radio installments, will shortly experience) Hitchhiker’s – the radio series (Primary Phase, Secondary Phase, Tertiary Phase, Quandary Phase and Quintessential Phase), the books (The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe, Life, The Universe and Everything, So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish and Mostly Harmless), the radio scripts (Volume One and Volume Two), the TV series…
I think I’m now only missing the towel.
Testing this new shiny comment form!
Yeuk, I feel insulted to think that the producers felt that they could release such a piece of crap and that I’d enjoy it.
This movie took the worse bits of every badly produced movie and incorporated with it new ideas and innovations to make it even worse.
The producers took a classic script, wiped their arses with it a few hundred times, shared it around for other people to wipe their arses on and then made sure they destroyed any parts which weren’t covered in shit. This seems to be how they developed the movie.