lederhosen

Well, we went and saw HHGTTG as a family outing last night. It wasn't as awful as some reviews had suggested, but I wouldn't recommend it.

I realise that adaptations from one medium to another require changes; I'm not bitching just because they took stuff out and added other stuff. What annoyed me was the pointlessness of so many of the changes.

Acting: For the most part, the actors did a reasonable job with what they had to work with. It's hard for me to get past the original cast (in particular, Simon Jones as Arthur), but I tried my best.

Arthur. The beginning of the movie involves Arthur acting wacky as he wakes up (making funny faces, smacking his head on things, etc) accompanied by intrusive soundtrack of the "this is funny, laugh dammit!" variety, which I didn't much like; after that, though, he got better.

Trillian. IMHO, she was a weak point in the books*, in need of some fleshing out, so I can't fault the film-makers for making her more important to the story. Making the romance between her and Arthur into the central plot of the film, however... what annoyed me was not so much that they did this, but that they did it without having any ideas for making it interesting, convincing, and/or funny. Boy meets girl, boy falls badly for girl on the strength of a couple of hours' acquaintance, boy fails test of the "if that's how you screen your boyfriends, I'm glad I failed" variety, girl is aloof, boy is prat, *none-too-original spoiler*, boy redeems himself with bravery, boy says cheesy magic romantic words at right moment, boy gets girl. Girl spends most of her time just reacting to what boy and other boy do and say, i.e. she didn't really get fleshed out after all.

Zaphod. Sam Rockwell did a reasonable job of showing Zaphod's charm and amorality, although I get the impression they tried a little too hard to turn him into a George W. parody.

Ford. I didn't have a problem with Mos Def in the role, but it was pretty forgettable; I'm having trouble thinking of anything he actually does after rescuing Arthur from Earth.

Marvin. Well, at least I got to tease

reynardo about Alan Rickman once again being in a role without genitals. I wonder if he does this to scare off the fangirls?

The Book (not strictly a character, but not sure where else to put this). Pretty flat; I thought the TV version had a lot more thought put into it.

Plot: Meh. Roughly follows the books, but increasingly gets shoehorned into the Love Story of Arthur and Trillian, as mentioned above. As a result of the cuts (see also Jokes, below) some things make no sense unless you know the books - for instance, what it is that's jamming Eddie's guidance systems. Other things lose their punch if you do know the books - for instance, they tell us early on about the computer designed by Deep Thought to calculate the Ultimate Question, and then make its identity a secret for about half an hour.

Jokes: This is the bit that irritated me most of all. It's not the lame jokes they added, like the physical comedy bit with Arthur or the lame "give me a hand" sight gag with Marvin. It's the bits where they kept the jokes from the books, but cut the punchlines. Take Arthur's argument with Prosser:

"But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available [film version: 'on display'] in the local planning office for the last nine months."

"Oh yes, well, as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."

"But the plans were on display..."

"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."

"That's the display department."

"With a flashlight."

"Ah, well, the lights had probably gone."

"So had the stairs."

"But look, you found the notice, didn't you?"

"Yes, yes I did. It was on display on the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of the Leopard.""

And so on - there are several bits like this where they take the books' funniest and most recognisable passages, and cut out just enough to make them unfunny. It's like seeing an old friend in the street, running up to say hello, and then discovering they've been lobotomised.

Stuff That Makes No Sense Whatsoever: As Arthur's house is being demolished with bulldozers, big chunks of building falling etc etc, the Vogon Constructor Fleet arrives... an improbably large number of workers run around panicking, many running out of the house. What exactly are they doing standing in a house while it's being bulldozed, again?

Good points, because there were a few:

- The original Marvin from the TV version makes a cameo.
- Vogon ships weren't bad, and the moment where the airlock opens got a laugh out of me.
- The original theme ("Journey of the Sorcerer") showed up.
- John Malkovich was duly creepy as Humma Kavula.

*I realise HHGTTG had several previous incarnations, beginning with the radio version, but I'm just going to lump them all together as "the books" since that seems to be what the movie's based on.

ION, after getting home from that, I did 100 minutes on the exercise machine at maximum resistance (a bit over 20 km worth). That I am Not Dead Yet suggests that I am less unfit than I'd thought, despite not having had regular exercise in several years. I've always been reasonable at physical endurance; the trick is keeping my mind occupied. When they figure out a way to surf the net while working out, I'll be Mr. Universe.

And found via

sclerotic_rings: the Bratzapper. Like him, I think it'd be better applied to the parents than the children.