... so I gave Kai a choice: we could either see
Star Wars 3 or
HHGTTG and he opted for the latter. Not that I'm particularly surprised: he's not fond of
Star Wars (I think he finds the simplistic black/white, good/evil structure tedious, he's understood from a young age that life is a lot more complicated than that, and generally prefers films that demand some thought). But he loves the
Guide books - currently working his way through my copy of
Restaurant - and thoroughly enjoyed the videos of the original series, so although I warned him it was going to be different to what he knew, and the reviews said there was a lot missing, he still wanted to see it.
His reaction on leaving the cinema? An indignant "That was nothing like the book!"
And mine? Well, it's mixed but mostly negative. We both
hated that trite, twee,
vile song that opens the film, but were infinitely relieved to hear Stephen Fry's voice as the Guide - no-one else could have played it. We also breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed a little when the main title came up accompanied by the original music...
Martin Freeman (Arthur) was good, better than the original, I'd say. And to my great and pleased surprise Mos Def was really rather fine as Ford. Not sure how good he'd be playing a human, but as a humanoid alien he was very convincing. (I can't work out why he needed glasses, though.) At first sight the Vogons were excellently nasty and ugly, their ships suitably unpleasant, and the destruction of earth very effective.
Then it all went downhill. The Starship Heart of Gold looked nothing like its description in the books (and to be honest, the interior didn't look
that much different to the original series to me, which was a bit of a let down given that's one area that cried out for improvement), Zooey Deschanel (Trillian) was... bland? Forgettable. Not that I liked Sandra Dickinson's version either, mind you. Marvin looks like a bobble-head toy, and annoyed us both. The later Vogons were nothing more than inept figures of fun, and the Guide graphics were pretty naff - the original were much better. But the real disappointment was Sam Rockwell's Zaphod. I really like Zaphod, both the book and Mark Wing-Davey's version, but this one was played as a thoroughly obnoxious, chauvinist
American. The sort of human male you just want to kick in the balls seconds after meeting. And I'm sorry, but two faces does
not count as two heads.
[growl]
There's an entirely erroneous whole section which I don't recall from
any of the books that seems only there to give Zaphod a love interest (<sarcasm> because of
course Trillian and Arthur are back together by the end of the film </sarcasm>). Its only high spot is a non-speaking cameo of the original Marvin. The Magrathean section is pretty good - Bill Nighy is excellent as Slartibartfast - and the sfx wonderful (as they damn well should be), but the Deep Thought section is a let down (though the computer itself is novel). The film
does miss out the vast majority of the funnier bits in the books. And as for the end... I'd advise you not to see it, Sue: you were annoyed enough with
I, Robot, this'll give you apoplexy. The really
really infuriating thing is they had the talent (mostly) and the technology - the film could have been really good.
Forget Mostly harmless, this is Hugely disappointing.
Kai's well into the superhero mythos though - has been dreaming he's one (with fuzzy blue electric wings: he can fly, make black holes and has limited telekenesis) living on a boat with Violet (from
The Incredibles), Starfire, Raven and Cyborg (from
Teen Titans) and Adam and Natasha from school. Astonishingly long and detailed dream over two nights that he's turning into a story...
He wants to see
The Fantastic Four, (and the trailer does look good, despite what I said on ICQ, Lutra) and
War of the Worlds, so that's two treats organised for the summer holidays.
Haadri revision is coming along well, too!
#
Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 7:36 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment