DIR: Garth Jennings • WRI: Douglas Adams, Karey Kirkpatrick • PROD: Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Jonathan Glickman, Nick Goldsmith, Jay Roach • DOP: Igor Jadue-Lillo • ED: Niven Howie • DES: Joel Collins • CAST: Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Warwick Davis, John Malkovich
Finally the long awaited film adaptation of Douglas Adam's famous radio play has reached the screen. Famously it has been in development hell for nearly twenty years. At one stage it was intended as an Ivan Reitman vehicle, in the wake of his Ghost Busters success. So finally it has arrived. But is it any good? Short answer, not really. Die hard fans of the series will walk out of cinemas seething with anger and filled with a plan of vile revenge on those responsible; that's just what I think, not a suggestion.
It starts off promisingly enough and even seems to be intent on sticking closely to the original series. Arthur Dent's home is under threat of demolition and his friend Ford Prefect arrives to tell him he has bigger things to worry about, namely the demolition of the world by the bureaucrats of the universe the Vogons, who incidentally play a much bigger role than they did in the original series and is one of the few major changes that works. Also new to the mix is the appearance of John Malkovich as Humma Kavula, a religious zealot type and old nemesis of Zaphod's who appears in a pointless bit of subplot business that is left up in the air for the possible sequel. The bulk of the plot is taken from the first three episodes, and this unfortunately is part of the problem because it means that the wonderful, funny, down beat ending that ended the original series has been replaced with a friendly Hollywood ending (including romantic subplot), woven from the final scenes set on the planet of Magrathea.
In place of the pompous Arthur Dent of the television series (a wonderful turn by Simon Jones who has a cameo in the movie) is that nice boy next door, Martin Freeman from The Office, who except for his night gown comes across exactly as he did in that series. The new black Ford Prefect played by Moss Def is another miss but then I felt that the original character also got lost along the way. Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell) is even wackier than he was in the original, the American twang and evil surf dude characterisation remains faithful and for the most part he is the funniest thing on show, the appearance of his head is one of the amusing moments the film has to offer. The new Marvin is another of the things that works, his construction, powered by Warwick Davis and voiced by a perfectly cast Alan Rickman, looks as if has been inspired by the latest in Japanese robot design.
Overall the film is visually stunning and there is no doubt that a great deal of work and care has gone into its design, a standout scene is Slartibartfast's (Bill Nighy) tour of Earth 2 with Arthur. A great deal of work has been put into this film effects wise, the Vogon world reminded me of the beautiful designs in Time Bandits. Unfortunately the characters and story don't stand up alongside the visuals, though it stays true to the original, (for some of the journey), albeit in a superficial way it has none of the dry cynicism that made the original series so entertaining in the first place. On the other hand there are a whole generation out there that have no idea what all the fuss was about all those years ago and will simply view it in all its Americanised glory and enjoy it for all the reasons I didn't.
Paul Farren
