Movie Review: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxyby Chris

DON’T PANIC! It’s just a review of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The novel Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which we will from now on refer to as H’s G to the G, HGTTG, HGG, or simply it -- because no sensible earthman has time to write such a substantial amount of letters -- is one of the greatest contributions to the sci-fi genre since green women. So, imagine my surprise when I heard it was being made into a film and the screenplay was written by none other than the late great Douglas Adam (author of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy/HGTTG/HGG/it). So of course, the film should be a faithful adaptation of the novel right? Right? Weeellll . . .

I should make one thing perfectly clear, I absolutely loved this movie. If you haven’t read the book you’ll love it, laugh, and not get any of the inside jokes. If you have read the book, you’ll laugh, get all the inside jokes, and if you’re not so much of a literary purist you won’t mind the parts that aren’t from and/or have nothing to do with the books. And no matter who you are you won’t be able to get that darn song from the opening credits out of your head. The movie starts off with a rousing rendition of So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, which in itself is just one big inside joke that really has nothing to do with the movie at all. But it is entertaining. The actual story starts . . . with a house. Much like the book. Arthur lies down in front of a construction vehicle to keep his house from being demolished, completely oblivious to the impending demolition of the entire earth. Then of course after getting extremely drunk his friend Ford Prefect whisks him away off of the planet shortly before its demise. The dialogue at some times was so similar to the book (particularly the narration) it was like they took it right from the source material. I was pleasantly surprised by this, assuming they’d have to take some of the more obscure parts of the story out in order for it to translate well onto screen. At other times . . . well I had to check my ticket to make sure I was in the right movie. Not many characters from the story are missing, but there are some added characters who were nowhere in the actual story. Altogether the story was quite good despite the embellishments and the inside jokes.

In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy novel characters are quite an essential part of the story. They’re interesting, quirky, and all have some sort of motivation for their actions. So finding actors who could portray these characters with comedic and over the top emotions would be a task, I think that was done well in this film. Every character I found as entertaining and believable as their novel counterparts. Two-headed Zaphod Beeblebrox was as much of an out-to-lunch, narcissistic, half-wit as he ever was and Ford Prefect a free-spirited, galaxy wise hitchhiker. Trillian became Arthur’s love interest in the film and had to be rescued by the guys in one part but was still an interesting character. Arthur is of course your dull, average, everyday earthman. All the characters, I’d have to say, were acted exceptionally well and were quite true to the real thing.

So, what does this culminate to? A movie that diverges in some parts quite far from the actual book but in others stays remarkably close to source material. All in all, I’d have to suggest that if you’ve read the book, see the movie. You’ll love it and you’ll get all the inside jokes. And if you haven’t read the novel(s) then you should definitely consider it. You’ll find yourself saying: “Oooh.” So it’s a great movie and I recommend it to all as a welcome respite from the current box office monotony. Who knows, it may beat the stuffing out of Revenge of the Sith.