I actually bought Mos Def - his Ford Prefect was as close to the book as any character in the movie. Trillian was good too. [...] The humor was surgically removed, leaving only a few traces. The plot didn't really try to make sense, which would have been OK as a way to string together some very funny skits, but with the humor sadly absent, all that was left was a sense of "what?".
Maybe the fact that Mos Def was unable to say most his lines competently should give you a clue as to why it wasn't as funny as it should be, and why we're all pissed they cast him.
His timing was completly off in almost, but not quite, all of his lines. He was really good with the giantess bit, but any "good" moments for the rest of his performance was him running around with a towell: Slapstickly funny, sure, but that doesn't excuse his utter lack of ability to deliver Ford's lines as if he were Ford.
Geez, Chris Rock's "Rufus" in Dogma felt more like Ford than Mos Def did in HHGTTG! He had the "I know more than you and I'm gonna help you whilst having a good time, yet be arrogant and aloof about it" attitude. Ford in this movie looked as lost as Arthur: That ain't right! He lacked the spark.
Look, Berman had some good ideas, and he had more than his share of bad ideas; but at least he tried to move the show.
"More T&A" is the only "good" idea he's ever had. The constant decline of quality in Trek correspond to his rise in power over the show's content and format. Some good stuff has happened due to talented underlings, but he's been negating their input gradually, up to the point of Enterprise season one and two: EXACTLY what he described as his vision for a "better" star trek in interviws in the early 90's.
Me too, what Trek needs is for Rick Berman to die. Seriously, die. Because he's got too much power and money to let go, and HE'S killing it softly, with sucking.
I do not like the way they handled Zaphod's double head. I do not like it at all... though it could have been worse. It is something in this movie I had to get over in order to let me enjoy the good bits: Not something they should be proud of, rather something we're forced to forgive.
I don't understand the people that start to leave before the credits even start, when they think the movie is "finishing up".
They're the same idiots that will cut you off from the right in order to get to a red light before you, thereby forcing you to stop when you could have coasted by slowly while the light turned (saves gas to just slow down instead of constantly accelerating and breaking).
They want to win the race... first one to their car! GO!
But - why the hell did they have to go and ruin it with the silly dialog and the "I'm a woman" joke after they recover the device?
For the same reason they casted an inept actor as Ford: Demographic appeal. I guess they wanted chicks to like it more... I blame an anonymous focus group and an exec or two who belong at the Sirius Cybernetics Marketing Department.
And some of the characters were faithful. Slartibartfast came off beautifully, even if one of his greatest lines was burried in a distracting fast paced edit. Trillian was believable. Marvin was great.
I walked out halfway through. [...] I rated this on IMDB and actually gave it a 1.
What are you, a Vogon? You DO NOT RATE SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT ACTUALLY SEEN! Sheesh.
And BTW, there is a wonderfully hilarious moment near the end that had the Douglas Adams feel to it to an incredible degree, and you MISSED it! Don't call yourself a fan: you aren't. You're a curmudgeon, and you need to take a drink, relax, and be less callous and bad tempered.
Stay and watch the credits - about 3 or 4 minutes into them there are some bonus scenes from the guide!
Let the lamers miss the good stuff.
If they feel that when names appear, the movie is over, let them miss the stuff they put in the credits to reward cinephiles who watch movie until the actual end, and not just up to the point where the creators' names come up.
point taken. but sam rockwell was quite great nonetheless.
Oh, yes, definatly, he gave a great performance, but he was directed in a dumbed down version of the character (and the whole Galaxy, considering the change in the way he was elected). My beef is obviously not with him: He was spectacular.
I bring this up because it seems most everyone else here has gotten intimate with HGG in some form or another, so I thought I would provide some insight into the reaction of someone who saw the movie with no previous knowledge of what this thing was all about.
I was so eager to see HGG, I got to the theatre 45 minutes early last night to ensure good seating. I will say it simplye: the movie did NOT disappoint.
I think you're right. I also enjoyed it and laughed, being a hardcore fan, I think you ought to know I was feeling very depressed. It's as if I knew I wouldn't enjoy it. But they had me at the "So long... and thanks for all the fish!" intro.
BUT, as a conaisseur, I urge you to find a version (audio or video) with a competant actor who understands the role playing Ford Prefect. That guy on the big screen was VERY disapointing when you've known better. He completly missed it.
Aside from that, it's a good movie and I'm glad to know it can spark an interest in the previous versions in a "virgin" : ) Thanks for sharing.
he film version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is faithful to author Douglas Adams' legacy. The trouble is it's simply not especially funny.'"
Is it just me.. or does that statment sort of contradict itself. One of the main things I enjoy about Douglas Adams works is the humor.
Well. The thing is, the text is faithfull, but the actor playing Ford just doesn't get it. He completly misplays the characters, and so jokes fall flat out of his incompetance.
BUT, there is something new, in the end, a device that is used in a way that was absolutly hilarious and that I couldn't imagine anyone but Douglas Adams writing. So if you're a fan: go see! Expect the parts you alreaydy know and love to be downplayed, but there's new stuff that is good (and unfortunatly, new stuff that is bad).
I laughed, I spoke along with some dialog, I was dismayed at some butchered dialog, and I LOVED Marvin! He was perfect. Ford was HORRIBLE. Zaphod, well, he's just this guy, you know? (He was good at times, and bad at others) Arthur is ordinary (which is what he's supposed to be). Trillian... well, no comment. Not super good, not super bad, passable, but not the actress' fault, they just messed with the character a bit. The Book: Excellent! A 21st century vision of a 1970's idea, very well done. The Babelfish: Too big! No way something that size fits in an ear : (
So, it should have been better, but it wasn't as bad as I feared, and I did laugh.
Carefully? He's in like, 8 shots, and in closeup at least 3 times. I was geeking out when I first spyied him, by the end I thought they were being too obvious. Still very cool though.
Here: In fact, I am growing right now at such a rate that in 10 years, I will be 65 meters tall. [...] Where I come from, "bullying" was still considered wrong.
Boy am I glad you added that last part! I don't want any 65m giants bullying me around! : )
Lucas knew what stories he wanted to tell when he first wrote Star Wars,
Yes, and he's been fucking around with them through CGI again and again ONLY because the special effects technology of the 1970's wasn't sofisticated enough to have Greedo shoot first! Sheesh.
Kevin Smith liked it. He said he really liked it. [...] But let me reiterate. Kevin Smith is raving and drooling about this movie. My hopes have been suitably elevated.
So Kevin Smith, known fanboy, and in line to get the TV series writing job from Lucas, reviewed it and liked it? Well, I'm satisfied.
I'm sure if it sucked he would have objectively told us so, without fear of reprisal from his dark master!
Your comment reminded me of the "Chung Kuo" series by David Wingrove. It's good reading if you enjoy sci-fi and can find the time to read seven books consecutively.
Hmmm, never heard of it, but a google search led me to a site, and the "more books like this" button gave me a long list of some of my favourite books, so I think I'll try to remember those names next time I'm shopping for books.
Sadly I did not see any evidence of the classic look from FireFly specifically: the color scheme is very "cool" (color temprature... more blue), verses(sic) the much warmer scheme used in the series (more like the pallet from a western)
The outer planets have a warm colour tone. The alliance planet have a cool, bluish hue: Rewatch "Ariel".
Same applies to the trailer, pay attention when a Reaver ship is chasing Mal and Jayne, and a Reaver shoots a circular saw at Mal, the colour tones are those of the outer planets: Warm, yellowish.
the series was famous for making special effect shots look like they were done with a hand-help camera: out of focus objects coming into focus, wild panning across the frame as if someone was trying to track with a moving object (rather than the perfect framing that is common), the point of view shaking with the "engine noise", etc..
Check out the shot of Serenity zooming above a blue planet during Mal's intro speech near the beginning of the trailer: The camera vibrates, the ship moves out of frame and the camera tracks it shakily... exactly like what you lament not seeing in the trailer.
many more close-ups of the actors. The series usually tried to keep groups in frame.
2 things: First of all, he's showing us fanboys closeup shots of our beloved characters (look folks: The gang's all here!). Secondly, you have a very selective memory. Check out this site's excellent screenshot galleries to see that there were closeups of people all the time in the series. Why you erased that from your mind? I dunno.
I hope that the preview is not representative of the final work we will see in September in this regard... I liked those aspects of the series.
I hope the trailer is representative: I liked those aspects of the series and they're still there, if you look at what is actually shown in the trailer. Thank you.
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I actually bought Mos Def - his Ford Prefect was as close to the book as any character in the movie. Trillian was good too.
[...]
The humor was surgically removed, leaving only a few traces. The plot didn't really try to make sense, which would have been OK as a way to string together some very funny skits, but with the humor sadly absent, all that was left was a sense of "what?".
Maybe the fact that Mos Def was unable to say most his lines competently should give you a clue as to why it wasn't as funny as it should be, and why we're all pissed they cast him.
His timing was completly off in almost, but not quite, all of his lines. He was really good with the giantess bit, but any "good" moments for the rest of his performance was him running around with a towell: Slapstickly funny, sure, but that doesn't excuse his utter lack of ability to deliver Ford's lines as if he were Ford.
Geez, Chris Rock's "Rufus" in Dogma felt more like Ford than Mos Def did in HHGTTG! He had the "I know more than you and I'm gonna help you whilst having a good time, yet be arrogant and aloof about it" attitude. Ford in this movie looked as lost as Arthur: That ain't right! He lacked the spark.
Look, Berman had some good ideas, and he had more than his share of bad ideas; but at least he tried to move the show.
"More T&A" is the only "good" idea he's ever had.
The constant decline of quality in Trek correspond to his rise in power over the show's content and format. Some good stuff has happened due to talented underlings, but he's been negating their input gradually, up to the point of Enterprise season one and two: EXACTLY what he described as his vision for a "better" star trek in interviws in the early 90's.
He HAS moved the show: To the brink.
I am tired of hearing this "trek needs a break"
Me too, what Trek needs is for Rick Berman to die.
Seriously, die. Because he's got too much power and money to let go, and HE'S killing it softly, with sucking.
people staying during the credits screws up my schedule of auditoriums to clean because I have to wait for them to leave.
So that's why you people look at us that way!
Geez, just clean around us, I pick up my own mess, thankyouverymuch.
I do not like the way they handled Zaphod's double head. I do not like it at all... though it could have been worse. It is something in this movie I had to get over in order to let me enjoy the good bits: Not something they should be proud of, rather something we're forced to forgive.
I don't understand the people that start to leave before the credits even start, when they think the movie is "finishing up".
They're the same idiots that will cut you off from the right in order to get to a red light before you, thereby forcing you to stop when you could have coasted by slowly while the light turned (saves gas to just slow down instead of constantly accelerating and breaking).
They want to win the race... first one to their car! GO!
But - why the hell did they have to go and ruin it with the silly dialog and the "I'm a woman" joke after they recover the device?
For the same reason they casted an inept actor as Ford: Demographic appeal.
I guess they wanted chicks to like it more... I blame an anonymous focus group and an exec or two who belong at the Sirius Cybernetics Marketing Department.
And some of the characters were faithful. Slartibartfast came off beautifully, even if one of his greatest lines was burried in a distracting fast paced edit. Trillian was believable. Marvin was great.
At least : )
I walked out halfway through. [...] I rated this on IMDB and actually gave it a 1.
What are you, a Vogon?
You DO NOT RATE SOMETHING YOU HAVE NOT ACTUALLY SEEN!
Sheesh.
And BTW, there is a wonderfully hilarious moment near the end that had the Douglas Adams feel to it to an incredible degree, and you MISSED it! Don't call yourself a fan: you aren't. You're a curmudgeon, and you need to take a drink, relax, and be less callous and bad tempered.
Stay and watch the credits - about 3 or 4 minutes into them there are some bonus scenes from the guide!
Let the lamers miss the good stuff.
If they feel that when names appear, the movie is over, let them miss the stuff they put in the credits to reward cinephiles who watch movie until the actual end, and not just up to the point where the creators' names come up.
Oh, yes, definatly, he gave a great performance, but he was directed in a dumbed down version of the character (and the whole Galaxy, considering the change in the way he was elected).
My beef is obviously not with him: He was spectacular.
I bring this up because it seems most everyone else here has gotten intimate with HGG in some form or another, so I thought I would provide some insight into the reaction of someone who saw the movie with no previous knowledge of what this thing was all about.
I was so eager to see HGG, I got to the theatre 45 minutes early last night to ensure good seating. I will say it simplye: the movie did NOT disappoint.
I think you're right.
I also enjoyed it and laughed, being a hardcore fan, I think you ought to know I was feeling very depressed. It's as if I knew I wouldn't enjoy it.
But they had me at the "So long... and thanks for all the fish!" intro.
BUT, as a conaisseur, I urge you to find a version (audio or video) with a competant actor who understands the role playing Ford Prefect. That guy on the big screen was VERY disapointing when you've known better.
He completly missed it.
Aside from that, it's a good movie and I'm glad to know it can spark an interest in the previous versions in a "virgin" : )
Thanks for sharing.
One of the main things I enjoy about Douglas Adams works is the humor
Well. The thing is, the text is faithfull, but the actor playing Ford just doesn't get it. He completly misplays the characters, and so jokes fall flat out of his incompetance.
BUT, there is something new, in the end, a device that is used in a way that was absolutly hilarious and that I couldn't imagine anyone but Douglas Adams writing.
So if you're a fan: go see! Expect the parts you alreaydy know and love to be downplayed, but there's new stuff that is good (and unfortunatly, new stuff that is bad).
I laughed, I spoke along with some dialog, I was dismayed at some butchered dialog, and I LOVED Marvin! He was perfect.
Ford was HORRIBLE.
Zaphod, well, he's just this guy, you know? (He was good at times, and bad at others)
Arthur is ordinary (which is what he's supposed to be).
Trillian... well, no comment. Not super good, not super bad, passable, but not the actress' fault, they just messed with the character a bit.
The Book: Excellent! A 21st century vision of a 1970's idea, very well done.
The Babelfish: Too big! No way something that size fits in an ear : (
So, it should have been better, but it wasn't as bad as I feared, and I did laugh.
Of course, if it's slapstick city I may have real trouble
;-)
It's SlapStick Planet, actually, and literally so!
Just a thought...ooow!
the movie was not dumbed down
Zaphod was : (
watch the queueing scene carefully.
Carefully? He's in like, 8 shots, and in closeup at least 3 times.
I was geeking out when I first spyied him, by the end I thought they were being too obvious. Still very cool though.
Here: In fact, I am growing right now at such a rate that in 10 years, I will be 65 meters tall. [...] Where I come from, "bullying" was still considered wrong.
Boy am I glad you added that last part!
I don't want any 65m giants bullying me around! : )
He obviously was referring to R2D2
Lucas knew what stories he wanted to tell when he first wrote Star Wars,
Yes, and he's been fucking around with them through CGI again and again ONLY because the special effects technology of the 1970's wasn't sofisticated enough to have Greedo shoot first!
Sheesh.
Kevin Smith liked it. He said he really liked it. [...] But let me reiterate. Kevin Smith is raving and drooling about this movie. My hopes have been suitably elevated.
So Kevin Smith, known fanboy, and in line to get the TV series writing job from Lucas, reviewed it and liked it? Well, I'm satisfied.
I'm sure if it sucked he would have objectively told us so, without fear of reprisal from his dark master!
Leah being Luke's sister was an idea which came to him when he was 2/3 done writing "Return of the Jedi."
I especially like when Luke tells her and she says she always knew.
Yeah? Even when you were frenching him!? You sick weirdo!
PC prices have dropped, and dropped faster than Mac prices.
So has the quality, the security...
Somethings are worth paying good money for, somethings are cheap in more ways than one.
More books means more better!
;-)
Now maybe them people can get their learn on?
This Land where the dinosaurs live.
I dunno about you, but when I watched "Ariel", I just HAD to yell out "Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!".
I just had to : )
Your comment reminded me of the "Chung Kuo" series by David Wingrove. It's good reading if you enjoy sci-fi and can find the time to read seven books consecutively.
Hmmm, never heard of it, but a google search led me to a site, and the "more books like this" button gave me a long list of some of my favourite books, so I think I'll try to remember those names next time I'm shopping for books.
Thanks!
Sadly I did not see any evidence of the classic look from FireFly specifically:
the color scheme is very "cool" (color temprature... more blue), verses(sic) the much warmer scheme used in the series (more like the pallet from a western)
The outer planets have a warm colour tone.
The alliance planet have a cool, bluish hue: Rewatch "Ariel".
Same applies to the trailer, pay attention when a Reaver ship is chasing Mal and Jayne, and a Reaver shoots a circular saw at Mal, the colour tones are those of the outer planets: Warm, yellowish.
the series was famous for making special effect shots look like they were done with a hand-help camera: out of focus objects coming into focus, wild panning across the frame as if someone was trying to track with a moving object (rather than the perfect framing that is common), the point of view shaking with the "engine noise", etc..
Check out the shot of Serenity zooming above a blue planet during Mal's intro speech near the beginning of the trailer: The camera vibrates, the ship moves out of frame and the camera tracks it shakily... exactly like what you lament not seeing in the trailer.
many more close-ups of the actors. The series usually tried to keep groups in frame.
2 things: First of all, he's showing us fanboys closeup shots of our beloved characters (look folks: The gang's all here!).
Secondly, you have a very selective memory. Check out this site's excellent screenshot galleries to see that there were closeups of people all the time in the series. Why you erased that from your mind? I dunno.
I hope that the preview is not representative of the final work we will see in September in this regard... I liked those aspects of the series.
I hope the trailer is representative: I liked those aspects of the series and they're still there, if you look at what is actually shown in the trailer. Thank you.