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Not impressed...
May. 27th, 2005 05:29 pmWell, I went to see Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy today, and I sadly must report that it was truly awful. I hoped that others had exaggerated, but no. It really was that bad. All the good lines had been chopped out, or the punchline removed ('This is obviously some strange new meaning of the word safe that I haven't previously come across') and instead there was a bizarre plot that seemed to bear little resemblance to the original - or at least kept sidetracking so much that it was hard to know what was going on. And was with casting random Americans as, well, pretty much everyone. No, Ford was very definitely not from Guildford - we could have told Arthur that. The whole American accent was a bit of a giveaway. Ditto Trillian. And the whole Arthur/Trillian romance did nothing for me: it was all intensely un-English. I think, to be honest, my problem was that I have listened to the original radio programmes so much (my parents had the original records that the BBC did, later upgraded to casette tapes) that I have the exact lines, voices and intonation burned into my brain, so any deviation is unacceptable. Martin Freeman wasn't bad, but neither was he Simon Jones. I usually like Sam Rockwell, but in this case he wasn't Mark Wing-Davies, and could not be Zaphod. Even Alan Rickman, amazingly, didn't quite make it for me. (Whoever would have thought I would ever say that?!) Notwithstanding this, I still think it was a rotter of a film. Oh, Stephen Fry was OK as the Book (but then he always is) and I liked the dolphin thing at the beginning, but that was all the had going for it.
However, I saw the trailer for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (or Narnia, or whatever they're calling it these days), and I have to say I'm actually quite excited. I mean, yes, I like the BBC adaptation of the 80s (staple tea-time fare, after all) but this looks really good and, to be honest, more likely to do justice to the books than the serial managed: let's face it, the special effects were spectacularly naff. The only thing I didn't like much was the huge MGM-roarishness of Aslan, which seemed a little OTT. Anyway, that's one I will definitely be going to see.
However, I saw the trailer for The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (or Narnia, or whatever they're calling it these days), and I have to say I'm actually quite excited. I mean, yes, I like the BBC adaptation of the 80s (staple tea-time fare, after all) but this looks really good and, to be honest, more likely to do justice to the books than the serial managed: let's face it, the special effects were spectacularly naff. The only thing I didn't like much was the huge MGM-roarishness of Aslan, which seemed a little OTT. Anyway, that's one I will definitely be going to see.
