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deathz0r

Hitchhikers Guide Trailer

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I was watching Law and Order last night when the TV station aired the trailer for the Hitchhikers Guide movie. I don't know whether the trailer has aired in other countries yet, but it certainly looks like a faithful movie conversion, except for Zaphod's lack of second head. It also has a reprise of the original radio theme song as well, which kicks a lot of ass. \o/

Has anyone else seen it yet?

EDIT: Found this trailer, but I saw a different trailer.

EDIT 2: Better site, has the trailer I saw (UK trailer)

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Yeah, I saw a long list of shit that didn't make the book-to-movie conversion. Disappointing stuff. Apparently, there even a few critical HHG (the actual book in the... book) entries entirely skipped over.

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Of course they have to take stuff out, else the movie would be 50 hours long. I still have hope in the movie.

This seems to be a harder movie conversion then lotr though, since the lotr books contains loads of useless boring fluff the movies only gained from removing.

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That and the fact that most of HHG's content is narrative, or a unique kind of descriptive language (which the book is famous for) that doesn't translate well to unaided visual.

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I'm just upset that they don't stick with all english actors. I mean they did a good job with the series and all. It still was missing alot of stuff in the series but still good.

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I saw the trailer for it when I saw Sin City. It was incredibly funny as it made fun of movie trailers. Never really heard of it, the movie itself before, and it looks really worth while.

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I've read that review and it looks like everything that made the books good has been removed. I'll still go to see it to judge it for myself but I'm not expecting much.

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Hmm. From that trailer it looks like its going to be an over-the-top special effects movie. But it might still be good.

Zaphod's second head is only on his chest in the movie so they wouldn't have to pay for CG animation in every scene he's in. And why did they make marvin's head so damn huge???

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Yeah, I read that scathing review a few days ago. I'm still going to see it though. If it sucks, I'll just warn all my friends away.

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I'm afraid that the scathing review might doom the movie to fans. I can just imagine fanboys reading this review ten times over and going to the movie with a scathing tounge. I really am not that anal about that kind of stuff.

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yeah at the end of the day it is just a film, the radio series, tv series and books still continue to exist and haven't been retroactively changed by the changes made in the film... ergo: if you don't like it but loved the radio series then that's fair enough. i'm keeping an open mind but i do actually rather like the BBC's LOTR radio series too myself :-)

ever since Matrix Revolutions came out i suddenly stopped being anal about films and started enjoying them for what they are, so what if the FX are shitty, there are no special fx in books, just crappy words on paper but i still manage to enjoy them!

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Oh Christ, Hollywood fails it again. I know Douglas Adams wrote the script, but from the look of it they didn't use it very damn well. No matter what, though, I'll still see it (as I do all movies that catch my eye). I mean, I'm still going to see SWE3, and the first two episodes turned me off almost completely to Star Wars.

cycloid said:

ever since Matrix Revolutions came out i suddenly stopped being anal about films and started enjoying them for what they are, so what if the FX are shitty, there are no special fx in books, just crappy words on paper but i still manage to enjoy them!

The third movie saved the series. I could've done without the second one. It was a good example of going over the top with FX, which is probably what the HHGTTG movie is now (the difference being there probably won't be two excessivly drawn out scenes).

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Don't panic. Trust me. They got it right. If you're expecting verbatim book to screen, you're not a true fan. The guide started as a radio play, an album,(the radio plays tweaked)and the well known books as well as the dodgy tv show. There are events in the book which contradict the radio play and the series, but through all the characters are the same. No different here.

It's basically the first book and it does do a few things different, but it's there and it's funny. You want verbatim? there are scenes transcribed faithfully for you and there are new ones. Zaphod does indeed have both heads and 3 arms and the actors just portrayed them right and my favourite Marvin was just so hateable and irritatingly depressed it's funny.

Got my grubby hands on double pass tickets to an advanced screening.

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Johnatone said:

Oh Christ, Hollywood fails it again. I know Douglas Adams wrote the script, but from the look of it they didn't use it very damn well.

So you've read the script then? Or are you just assuming that Adams "could do no wrong" and it's all hollywood's fault?

Johnatone also said:

The third movie saved the series. I could've done without the second one. It was a good example of going over the top with FX, which is probably what the HHGTTG movie is now (the difference being there probably won't be two excessivly drawn out scenes).


Heh, there's so many people that would entirely disagree with this statement...

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I'm not one; if anything, Revolutions is the only one of the trilogy I didn't really hate.

Anyway, I've always heard about this series. I don't typically enjoy comedy, but the trailer looks amusing enough, so I suppose I'll see what it's all about.

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I'm seeing it tomorrow morning. Work's booked the Imax theatre at South Bank (about 130 employees, plus a guest each). Free Hitchhikers, how can you go wrong?

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Pretty darn good. It looked good with out going to nuts with the FX, the performances from the actors where top notch (they really couldn't have picked a better Anther Dent). the new material, while not quite up to the same slandered as Adams book, is still clever for the most part. The aliens are damn near perfect (Muppets will never die). They respected there fans as best they could.

The main problem with the film is that they had to cut an awful lot of stuff to get this to fit. Marvin doesn’t get time to develop, and some of the best hitch hikers guide facts didn't make it (the babble fish one in particular is missed). The whole improbability drive doesn’t do the mind job thing the same way it did in the book. And Zaphod just didn't sit right at the times (he's alright, but sometimes he's just annoying).

The new plot elements aren't too bad, but it has been holly wooded a wee bit. Mostly for the second half of the film. I can't be too specific without spoiling, but you'll see what I mean.

So yeah. Worth a look.

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LorD BaZTArD said:
The babel fish gag? erm it's right there. Nearly word for word. What are you referring to?

It's there, but it's cut down. In the book it leads to a big rant on the exstance of God, and this whole thing about faith and evoltion.

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They took a lot out of the book, but it stood (hopped, stripped, puked) on its own right, and was an awesome movie.

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It was nice, but it definatly more "inspired by" Hitchhikers than a faithful adaption of it.

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Here's a review I made copy/pasted from another forum (warning: rather spoilery):

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (SPOILERS)

This could have been bad. It also could have been a lot better. But at least it wasn't bad. If you don't know the plot already, I demand you go to your nearest library or book store, get the book, and read it all the way through. Shouldn't take you more than a couple days because it's rather short.

I think first I'll list the bad stuff so it's all cushioned in between the moderate intro and the fluffy good bit a ways down. I think my main gripe is the butchering of some classic lines from the book. For instance the whole bit about Author going to the place where they keep the notice about his demolition and finding it in a abandonned bathroom in the basement was shortened to "Didn't you see the notice?" "It was in the basement!" or something like that. :/ Also, they didn't even do the part where the Vogons do the same to Earth. That was part of the whole fun of that bit of the story! Ah well... There was aslo a love story or two in the movie which was rather lame. The only place love stories belong is in romantic comedies. If you have a love story and other plots going on at the same time, it just makes it unbeleveable to smash a romance into two hours of film. Not to mention the fact that besides So Long and Thanks for All the Fish, there were no love stories in the Hitchhiker series. Speaking of that, the movie began with a musical where the dolphins sang a "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" song before flying into space. That part was both funny and painful at the same time. Only time will tell whitch it truly is.

I also didn't really like the way they dealt with the improbability drive. It didn't really do as many weird things as it did in the books, though I guess a lot of that would be rather hard to transfer to film. I hope people who never read the books got as much out of the film as I did. The movie went off on odd tangents and made a bunch of references that I'm pretty sure people who never read the books would get. There was also a part where Trillian, Zaphod, and Ford actualy come face to face with Deep Thought. This just kind of struck me a odd considering Deep Thought existed in a higher dimension and was at least 4 billion years old. Oh well. Finaly, the movie seemed to come apart in the end and there were a bunch of groaners in it. There should have been a lot more refining going on from about the time Slartibartfast shows Aurthur Earth onwards. Maybe it was just because it was so saturated with the stupid love story.

Besides all my bitching, there were several good points to the movie. First of all were the Vogons. The book kind of gave me the impression that they were a bunch of dumb, cruel, stereotypical green aliens. In the movie, however they built on their character quite a bit to make them a race that resembled caricatures of British beurocrats which I'm sure they were meant to be (one of the best lines in the movie is when the Heart of Gold goes into hyperspace to escape the Vogons and one of them goes "they just went into hyperspace! They can't do that, they haven't filled out the proper forms!" And Jeltz responds by saying "right then, we'll follow them! Get me pursuit form 21-A!" or something to that effect). Their puppetry was just amazing as well. They were the most believable special effects I've seen in a long time. Also, they became a major part of the story as opposed to just the bookends they were in the novels (they were in the beginning of the first one, Jeltz was at the end of the last one and besides that there was just a bit of mention of them in the second book IIRC), and several scenes actualy took place on Vogsphere (some of my favorite scenes in the movie).

Secondly, the casting was fantastic. I'm actualy glad they decided against Hugh Laurie besides his wonderful acting skills because I don't think he could have fit the part as well as they guy they got to play Aurthor in the movie. Mos Def did rather well as Ford, though he didn't come across as..well...constantly drunk as Ford was in the movie...though I'll blame that more on the script than his acting. Beeblebrox was perfectly cast, and again the only faults with his character came from the script (a certain plot twist changes his character for most of the movie Confused). Marvin was a brilliant combination of Warwick Davis, Alan Rickman, and whoever designed his costume. Slartibartfast was acted brilliantly. I always thought of him as kind of a wizard character akin to Gandalf in Lord of the Rings or Fizban in Dragonlance who goes between threatening bodily harm on the characters ("Late as in the late Dentaurthordent") to giving them advice and exposition that sets them on their path. The actor who played him in this movie did that excelently while at the same time played him as a kind of shut-in type who spoke nervously and I think it worked out perfectly. Malcovich even played his character very well as a soft spoken yet extremely creepy religious leader. The only exception to this I think was Trillian. I don't know if it was the whole love story getting to me again or the fact that she was played by an American actress that didn't even attempt an English accent (have you ever heard an American say the phrase "I'm feeling a bit peckish"...it just doesn't sound right) but I just didn't like her much.

Lastly, I think that even though they butchered several of Douglas Adam's jokes, some of the humor added was hilarious. One of my favorite lines is when they are on Vogsphere and have to go through a really long line to get to a receptionist. After they enter the room and look at the line in dismay Aurthor just goes "No matter, I'm British. A little bit of queueing doesn't bother me." or something. I think I was the only one in the theatre that cracked up at that one. I watch too much British comedy. Embarassed There were also a lot of great slapstick moments that I'm sure many people will complain about but oh well. I'm a huge fan of physical comedy when it's done right which is why I love stuff like 3 Stooges, Pink Panther, Young Ones, and Bottom, and it was done rather well in this movie. The best parts probably being when Ford and Author get shot out of the airlock and when they first arive on Vogsphere. Watch for those.

Anyway, I've been rambling too much and I've probably spoiled half the movie so I'll just wrap it up here. If you're expecting a direct book-to-movie translation here, you're going to be sorely dissapointed. If you want to see a very entertaining movie, on the other hand you'll probably like it.

7.3/10

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Good review. Closely matches my own views.

The whole idea-panintheface thing on vogsphere was hilarious.

and for the record... zooey is hot.

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My own copy/pasted review, admittedly not as in-depth as Dan's:

I really liked it. I like how they pulled off the Guide itself, and the poor crabs hehe, loved those. The Vogons were done incredibly well, I have to give them a mention. They felt completely real to me.
Honestly I don't think the book was more compelling. Yes, it has more "stuff" than the movie, but the fact that you actually get to see some of the crazy things in the book more than redeemed it for me.

-snip-

Anyways, I've come to realize that you just can't make a faithful mainstream movie out of a lot of books. You have to change things, adapt it. For the most part I like how they handled it here.

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