The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Awful Cinema
Don’t panic go see this movie!
I have seen movies from books and been disappointed. I have seen just plain bad movies. But nothing could have prepared me for “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. The wit from the book is absent with no attempt even made to translate it to the screen. The story is a jumbled mess of the book’s characters rearranged to fit movie formula with romantic inevitability; designated ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’; and the most important aspects of the main characters are completely misunderstood or absent altogether.
There are about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes of decent film where the story or dialogue was lifted directly from the book. The rest of the time, we sat there wondering when it was going to get better, only to be shocked as it actually got worse. It was not that material from the book was cut, that’s to be expected. More than two thirds of the movie was contrived, confused and unnecessary. From the opening musical number sung by the dolphins to the cell phone that exists only to plug Vodaphone to the tragic death of Marvin, this is a movie utterly without merit that everyone should avoid vigorously.
Marvin sums it up: “It’s incredible; it’s even worse than I imagined.”
If you are a fan, and you simply must see it, go reread the book and imagine the big screen.