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Telegraph Reviews Hitchhiker Movie, Approves
LPetrazickis writes "The Telegraph has reviewed the movie adaptation of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The review notes that the film is every bit as much a loving tribute to Douglas Adams as it is a joyous comedy. American actors acquit themselves well, and the sense of intelligent wonder transfers well to the technicolour screen. The many incarnations of The Guide are summarized at the end."
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> it wasn't in any way related to Tolkien's world.
What? I thought it was an extremely faithful adaption, given the limitations imposed by trying to compress three fat books into a mere 9 hours (or whatever) of movie. And before you ask, I've read LoTR so many times since my mum bought it for my birthday in 1962 that my original copy has just about fallen apart. Btw, I've never felt that Tolkien's characterisation was all that strong - most of the characters are little better than cardboard cutouts.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Glad someone said it. I really liked the books and movies, but depth of characterization wasn't a priority for Tolkein. Given that his interests were with mythology, that wasn't surprising, but let's not pretend his work was something it wasn't intended to be. Most of the characters were either "white hats" or "black hats." Exceptions were mainly limited to Gondor, where Denethor was plain nuts, Boromir was a good flawed hero, and Faramir was very well rounded.
The treatment of Faramir, actually, was my greatest disappointment with the movie (theater version especially).
And let's not forget the gratuitous dwarf-tossing jokes in the first two films. Then again, the director of "Dead Alive" and "Meet The Feebles" not adding a little sophomoric humor to LOTR? Did you expect him to hold back? I didn't and wasn't offended.
The beauty of the LOTR movies was that even though they were not faithful to the letter of the book, they were faithful to the spirit of the book. I was not disappointed.
Of course, I would have rather seen Bjork as Arwen. She *looks* like an elf. She wouldn't have even had to play with a different accent...her Icelandic/British accent is pretty damn close to the way they did Elvish anyway.
Also I would have rather heard what Jimmy Page would have done on the soundtrack instead of Howard Shore. I'm a child of the '70s. Reading LOTR with Led Zeppelin on the stereo has inescapably twisted my mind. He's done orchestral scores before...anyone remember the "Death Wish" movies? Yeah, I know, bad example.
Of course, H2G2 has similar synaptic connections in my twisted mind. I still have an animated movie starring the voices of Eric Idle (Ford), Michael Palin (Arthur) and Bill Murray (Zaphod) in my mind, probably never to be erased by the actual movie. The deconstruction of the movie by DNA's biographer kinda had me worried, but I think I might just give this a chance.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I met a fella at a party in England once in the seventies. We peed in a field and argued over whether "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Milky Way" was a better title. He thought not... Said I was a telepathic bastard in fact, but that's water out back of the comet now. Point: All I want is a PDA with all the video and movies and radio cross-ref'd with the Texts, with the words "Don't Panic" on its cover. Counterpoint: After all this time, is that too much to ask of Western Civilization? Tesserapoint: Or, at least, of an anonymous yet literate electronics factory in Taiwan?
I think Piers Anthony took the whole concept to an entirely new level, turning his Xanth 'trilogy' into... what is it now, 27 books? I still get a chuckle out of that. And for those who haven't read it already, I highly recommend the series.
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