Grab Your Towel and a Hot Cup of Tea

Just a reminder to other Douglas Adams fans: the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy DVD comes out on Tuesday (9/13/05). I know, the movie isn't even close to the book. But, you've been waiting almost twenty years to see it, haven't you?

I don't understand what was wrong with the movie. It just didn't feel right. Many of the same jokes are there, but somehow they aren't as funny. Having seen the BBC miniseries, I've got to guess that some of the gags are just funnier when delivered with a British accent. I did notice a few places where the dialog was noticeably "Americanized," and it disturbed me. The scene with Deep Thought was particularly dry. I think they needed a more masculine or more thoughtful sounding voice for the computer. Marvin, the paranoid android was the one character who met my expectations. If you've seen the BBC miniseries, did you notice the "original" Marvin waiting in line on the Vogon homeworld?

As usual, there were some things that got changed for the movie. Vogons are supposed to be green, they're not gray until the fifth book. It's a trivial detail, I know, but not when the fifth book sites the new skin color as evidence of the characters being in a parallel universe. Zaphod should have two heads. He sort-of does in the movie, but then they cut one off (to make the special effects easier?). And the worst offense of all, in my opinion, is that they introduced the towels as important and never explained why.

I still enjoyed the movie, overall. The scene on the Vogon home world with the blue forms is especially funny. Let's pray the sequel is better, right?