Note

[mudshark]

Originally Posted by catalina_marina

The film is kind of bad though, isn't it?

I'd not seen it until very recently, but I thought parts of it were quite entertaining.

Yeah, there were a number of things significantly altered from what was in the books (or the TV series, which I only vaguely remember, or the radio dramas, which I've only read bits of the first and none of the second) or omitted entirely, and then there was a bunch of other stuff which was never in any of them, that I can recall (Humma Kavula?! ) Aaand then, there was Marvin's appearance (which I thought was a case of poor judgement) and Zaphod's second head (which was several different kinds of disturbing and wrong) and there were probably some other things I'm not remembering right now.

Even considering all of that, I thought most of it could have believably fit in with what's in the books, somehow or other, and I thought it far from a complete waste of my time.

Go ahead, Valium; I brought my own cross and the nails are right over there. Yes, that's it -- the large mallet. Good!

[Sa'ar Chasm]

I loved Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin. There were some bits, though, that could have used more exposition. The background story for the paddles on Vogsphere would have explained a lot, plus they're the source of the joke about why the Vogons' noses are on their foreheads.

[NAHTMMM]

They definitely could have done with a few minutes more. Still, I give them an A+ for effort. Lots of little touches, like the red corded phone at the far end of the Magrathea showroom. And a lot of the changes, I think, were consistent with an honest desire to translate the book well to film. (In particular, the plot point about *ahem* Zaphod's signature was entirely in Adams's style. )

I hadn't considered Valium's assertion that it 'looks just like any other wacky British comedy' (I'm paraphrasing). He might have a point, I don't know.

[Nate the Great]

Let me put it this way; on a scale of one to ten:

Radio h2g2: 7. I've read the scripts, and although there are some good bits, the radio-only stuff really had no business being on radio, and the plot DID have a tendency to spiral out of control.
Book h2g2: 9: Has the most gags, and it does hold itself together well.
TV h2g2: 10. For me, the perfect iteration, but only if you pay attention to the minutae that people can miss, particularly during Guide entries.
Movie h2g2: 6: Finally Trillian gets a decent plotline, but Zaphod is too wacky, and...and...they filmed the Mostly Harmless entry, but didn't stick it in! Come on, one minute more! One minute for a CRUCIAL bit of Hitchhiker lore! Oh, and the Nonexistence of God was too good to not put in! They should've chucked Humma Kavula, though. For being the "villain," he didn't get the proper introduction or explanation of his motivations.

[NAHTMMM]

My suspicion is that they didn't include the "Mostly harmless" bit because it would have gone against the theme of the movie. (By which I mean Arthur's little speech while in the "hot seat" near the end.)

It's just a suspicion, of course.

[Nate the Great]

Huh? How are those connected?