Just watched the Disney version of H2G2...
Feb. 6th, 2006 10:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
... and all in all, I'm glad I didn't spend money on it. If I'd gone to the theater, I'd have walked out of the theater with the opening credits.
That said, I don't actually know yet if I like it or hate it. You see, there are large parts I really, really like, and large parts I really, really, REALLY hate. The parts I like tend to be those which come direct from the old story, plus one new item- no spoilers.
The parts I did NOT like:
(1) Zaphod. Zaphod is not funny. He's not entertaining. He is FUCKING ANNOYING. Worst of all, he is not even the least little bit charismatic... and charisma is supposed to be nine-tenths of his character. The explanation for his second head is barely given, and when said second head is removed midway through, it feels less like a plot point than a way of ditching a plot device that just doesn't work. There really isn't a single bit Zaphod is in that I liked at all.
(2) The Arthur-Trillian Hollywood-style romance. Not only does it not work- at all- not only is it cliche as all hell- but it is so obviously superfluous to the story that it scalds the eyeballs.
(3) Compression, especially in the early parts, as material is cut, cropped, stuffed and overlaid so that the vital points from the earlier versions may be crammed in... to make room for the long, empty, dreary bits like, for example, the entire Vogsphere sequence. A lot of the "new" stuff could have been ditched; but if it was necessary, then guys, you should have made the rest of the movie as dense and rich as the early parts. And you didn't.
Later this week, before I send the thing back, I'll re-watch it with commentary tracks and see if they mention what is and isn't Adams' work. (Not that that means much; I thought Mostly Harmless was a crappy book, representing a deliberate attempt to kill off the novels. I prefer to pretend it was never written.)
Overall, visually wonderful, storywise... very depressing.
(Oh, and guys, could you have made Marvin a little less obviously guy-in-a-suit? Even the TV series Marvin was better than -that-...)
That said, I don't actually know yet if I like it or hate it. You see, there are large parts I really, really like, and large parts I really, really, REALLY hate. The parts I like tend to be those which come direct from the old story, plus one new item- no spoilers.
The parts I did NOT like:
(1) Zaphod. Zaphod is not funny. He's not entertaining. He is FUCKING ANNOYING. Worst of all, he is not even the least little bit charismatic... and charisma is supposed to be nine-tenths of his character. The explanation for his second head is barely given, and when said second head is removed midway through, it feels less like a plot point than a way of ditching a plot device that just doesn't work. There really isn't a single bit Zaphod is in that I liked at all.
(2) The Arthur-Trillian Hollywood-style romance. Not only does it not work- at all- not only is it cliche as all hell- but it is so obviously superfluous to the story that it scalds the eyeballs.
(3) Compression, especially in the early parts, as material is cut, cropped, stuffed and overlaid so that the vital points from the earlier versions may be crammed in... to make room for the long, empty, dreary bits like, for example, the entire Vogsphere sequence. A lot of the "new" stuff could have been ditched; but if it was necessary, then guys, you should have made the rest of the movie as dense and rich as the early parts. And you didn't.
Later this week, before I send the thing back, I'll re-watch it with commentary tracks and see if they mention what is and isn't Adams' work. (Not that that means much; I thought Mostly Harmless was a crappy book, representing a deliberate attempt to kill off the novels. I prefer to pretend it was never written.)
Overall, visually wonderful, storywise... very depressing.
(Oh, and guys, could you have made Marvin a little less obviously guy-in-a-suit? Even the TV series Marvin was better than -that-...)