Well, I'm finally back from Snowy and Cold Buffalo, man what a trip.
Anyway, Just after I got home, Sus and I went to see "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy" on opening night (we caught the 7:30 show, but out here, that's the opening performance). Now, for anyone that knows me, I've owned and loved this fabulous 5 book (or 6, depending on your point of view) trilogy. I first read it on a trip to NYC with my brother, mother and grandmother, and have re-read it probably 100 or more times since then. I've answered questions with "42" to see if it fits, I've ALWAYS had my towel with me when I travel (even in my backpack during my latest trip to NY) and I've used a Dire Straits album to seduce a woman.
Obviously I'm a fan boy.
Now, they go and make a movie. Ok, so Spiderman was really kewl, but Electra? I was totally unsure as to how bad this might go, or how good it could be. So I tried to go in with an open mind. Well, they open the movie with a dolphin musical (for So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!). Hummmmm... this fails to bode well with the nerd in me. Ok, bygones be bygones... we get an extremely well played out initial earth escape, I even really like the ring as the electronic thumb. Vogons... humm... soulless but good. Wait, where did all this crap come into play? Trillian using a POV gun? Even for me, that's a kinda long shot reference? What the Fuck? Humm... wow, movies over? Arthur stays out in space voluntarily? Not fucking likely.
Ok, well in the spirit of Fairness and Goodwill, (those notorious bastards) I'm going to give this movie a Thumbs Sideways I guess. See, the movie does, till the end, really follow the spirit in which HHG2TG is written. Every time Douglas Adams reinterpreted the story, it took different turns. The original shoot out scene on Margretha was much different than the radio show, but the scene that DA created to be read for the listening audience was better adapted to the medium it was in. So, with the visual efforts of the producers clearly in place (the scuttling jeweled crabs, the junior shouting and pushing people around officer, et all), the REALLY did try to make this look as a fan boy like myself would expect, with piles and piles of hidden references but as a whole, it really doesn't impress. Sus, who hasn't read the book yet, even past my incessant pestering, only found the story of passing interest. She said it did nothing to really induce her to read the book anymore than me talking about it did.
Now, what do I think should have happened? Well, this whole movie needed to be a dark comedy. It should have ended on a down note at best, and even if Arthur still gets the girl in the end, he needed to be kept off earth for more HitchHikers like reasons. Even if the fan boys like myself took this as a possibility of a second movie to come, it would have kept the tone of the movie in a more DA'esque fashion.
Anyway, well, it's time for me to get back to work, I've got a project in the hopper right now that is really itching my brain, but in a good way, more on that when I get back to life, the white line fever is just now wearing off....
TTFN kiddies.
