Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy is an hilariously funny movie but it has a problem. Basically its problem is that it isn't quite as funny as any of the previous incarnations of Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy. It isn't nearly as good as the radio show, the books or the TV show. It might well not be as good as the computer game but I haven't played that so I'll have to let other people decide. Apparently there is a play I've missed as well but you get the idea. This movie is an almost tragic missed opportunity. Given the quality of the source material it should have been one of the funniest films ever but it never quite makes it to that level.

If you aren't familiar with Hitch Hiker's in one of its other forms then this movie is going to leave you dazed and confused. To be completely honest this review will probably confuse you as well. While I'm being honest I don't know why you are wasting valuable time reading this when you haven't read Hitch Hikers' Guide to the Galaxy. You only get a certain amount of time to read stuff before you die you know. I promise you Douglas Adams is a much better writer than I am. I'd go away and read it and then come back.

Are you done? Good wasn't it? I told you so.

If you do choose to ignore me and go to see this movie without having any previous experience of the series you will probably still enjoy it. You will probably laugh at bits of it but I wouldn't bother trying to follow the plot. If you are familiar with the story then I recommend that you concentrate on the jokes and try to ignore the brand spanking new holes in a plot that was always joyfully chaotic.

At least the film still has all of your favorite characters. Right? Right? Well yes but they have all been changed.

Trailers and promotional material gave the impression that Marvin had been completely ruined. Marvin fans can breathe a small sigh of relief. He is still his old miserable self and he isn't as cutesy as he looks in the posters. He has even kept most of his more famous lines but then you couldn't get rid of those without being lynched. Sadly I'm only allowing you a small sigh of relief not a large one. For some reason the filmmakers have decided to give Marvin the personality of a sulky teenager. I'm completely in favour of giving people space to be creative and come up with their own interpretations of characters and so on but that is just wrong. Marvin is meant to have the personality of a grumpy old man. I can just about see that someone reading the books might picture a robotic sulky teenager but they wouldn't if they paid attention. More importantly nobody who has heard the radio show would picture Marvin as anything other than a robotic grumpy old man. We know what he was originally meant to sound like. It was radio show before it was anything else. Why irritate people who love the character for no good reason?

Marvin is still recognisable and he is still funny. The new version of Zaphod is only vaguely similar to previous versions and he isn't as funny. The film-makers have cowardly decided to put his extra head on his chest. I can only assume that they were afraid of the ghost of the rubber head in the TV series. Surely a proper two headed person isn't beyond the talents of today's special effect experts?

The filmmakers seem to have heard that Zaphod was the president and latched onto that as his defining feature. That gives them the opportunity for a bit of satire. He's the president and he's stupid. Do you get it? As satire goes it's not exactly Swift is it?

The good news for fans is that the new relationship between Arthur and Trillian isn't as annoying as it could have been. While it is of course sickening that Hollywood thinks we are all too dumb to cope with a story that doesn't have a love interest you are going to be spared my rant on the subject. Just this once it doesn't ruin the movie. In fact you could argue that Trillian is a more rounded character than she has been. Her new romance gives her more to do and for the first time she actually seems bothered that the Earth has been destroyed.

The need to tell the story within a reasonable length of time has meant that lots of jokes have been left out. Inevitably fans will be upset that some of their favorites didn't make the cut. On the other hand all the jokes that did make it will be ones they already know really well. It is potentially a lose - lose situation. Obviously there are some new jokes but the problem with them is that you end up judging them against the ones that you know have been dumped. The only solution is to try not to think about it too much.

I am being very harsh here. It does have some great moments. Apart from anything else it does of course provide the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life the Universe and Everything but then surely we all know what that is by now.

The Magrathean factory-floor is spectacular and cleverly done. Having said that creating a place where people make planets that didn't look spectacular would be an unforgivable failure of imagination. The Vogon home world Vogsphere provides lots of clever visual humour and the Vogons themselves are brilliantly brought to life.

The annoying thing about this film is that it comes so close to being so much better. This might sound strange but I really hope they make a sequel. The Hitch Hiker series has lots more material they could use. There are lots of plot strands still dangling. There is plenty of room for a second movie and I have a feeling that it might be one of those rare occasions where the sequel is better than the original.

Hitch Hikers guide to the Galaxy is a funny film and it is worth watching but it isn't as good as it should have been. Apparently the late great Douglas Adams spent a large part of the last twenty years of his life trying to get this movie made. I don't know what he would have thought of it but I don't think it's a fitting tribute. I realize that putting Adam's vision on screen was a difficult task but the BBC TV show was better and they probably had about a fiver to spend. If you want to have a few laughs then this movie is definitely worth a look but frustratingly it never quite manages to capture the comic brilliance of the guide's earlier incarnations.