Long awaited, finally a feature film adaptation of the Hitchhiker's Guide arrives. Is it worth it?
The marketing is wholly annoying. The picture is being presented like its "Armageddon" or "Independence Day", which is only going to make people dissappointed. That is, unless they've somehow managed to turn the Hitchhikers Guide story into one of those movies, which would make me and anyone who's ever read the books or likes movies that don't painfully suck dissappointed.
But its still a Douglas Adams screenplay, and has a British production team, so I'm going to go on the assumption that its just the marketing that is stupid. Mos Def is an interesting choice for Ford Prefect. Certainly not one I would have anticipated, but I think it could work out very well. And casting Stephen Fry as the voice of the book is so perfect it hurts. A reviewer at IMDB said Fry has a voice "like God popped in for a cup of tea" which is about as perfect a description as possible.
So I'm hopeful that this is a good movie adaptation which is just a victim of Touchstone's marketing machine trying to attract the wrong audience (a la Fight Club). I'll find out soon, let me know what any of your impressions are.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371724/
I can only hope they don't pull a retard on this one. I may wait for the first reviews to come out and see if it is at all near the book. If not I may just veto the movie and catch it on netflix.
The promos for it definately make it look like something that I will hate. Really, I'm not sure if you CAN make a good movie based on the Hitchhiker's Guide. Always, the things I found most amusing about the books were in the editorial comments made by the narrator. Doesn't lend itself well to film.
It does when the narrator is Stephen Fry.
But your point is well taken, it may be incompatible with the medium.
The TV show done by the BBC was HORRIBLE. However, I am hoping against hope that the film will be worthwhile. I'll probably just wait for DVD, unless my friends give it rave reviews.