The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy doesn't start out all that promising. While the type of humour that
Hitchhiker's uses falls in the general realm of Britishness, there's no single class of British humour or comedy.
It's varying. Some of it is delightfully subtle and some brilliantly knock-you-over-the-head bold. And then there's some
downright embarrassing examples of both, and all that comes in between. When Arthur first treks down the stairs and knocks
his head on the ceiling (as if living in a place for however long, you wouldn't eventually learn to duck there), you could
have almost walked of the theatre right then. But to be fair to the film, you don't want to end up becoming another Adams
biographer and dismissing a movie within the first few minutes.
Written from the viewpoint of someone uninitiated with the Hitchhiker's universe, observations in this review are
made simply on the merits of the film rather than incorporating any outside influences, which is important, however rare,
in any film review of an adaptation - it's a film, not a taking book.
Still in his pajamas, and now struggling to cope with the demolition of his house for a highway bypass, Arthur has returned
from the local with his pal to find that that's the least of his worries. Indeed, a massive object has appeared in the sky
which sends pretty much everyone packing, including Arthur. But it seems his lad Ford Prefect has the means to transport
from Earth to an orbiting space craft, its from here that Hitchhiker's begins to display some good potential. Ford
and Arthur travel up a beam of light, beginning at the Earth's surface, the visuals used are quite remarkable. Travelling
up alongside the object that appeared above them, it pulls back gradually to reveal another, and another, and another,
until you see the entire planet covered with hundreds, thousands of what we now understand to be massive mines, ready and
set to destroy the planet. Arthur and Ford have travelled well clear of them, into a space ship which is observing from a
safe distance away.
Boom, the planet evaporates in an implosion and the Earth is no longer. However, Arthur's journey has begun as he begins to
accept that his friend is an alien and his home is gone. Jettisoned into space by unsympathetic Vogans, picked up by an
improbability driven craft and brought to the bridge by a manically depressed robot, Hitchhikers' story brings with it
a great deal of originality, even if some of the guide's/narrator's jokes are a little flat. Once they are united with
the ships crew, the film's comedy also begins, thanks in large part to Zaphod, the president of the universe. Played by
Sam Rockwell, Zaphod really is the life of the movie. Every time the character says or does something there's usually a
laugh associated. You have to admire an actor that can bring so much over the top energy to a character and not make him
annoying after just a couple of minutes.
Arthur, the main character of the story is sufficient onyl. Played by Martin Freeman, he's really not much more than just
a guy who cruises through the movie and its surroundings, while concerned about a girl he knows is 'the one' because he met
her for five minutes at a party. As a guy who's lost his planet and is whisked away into space, he copes remarkably well.
Apply that to Trillian, the girl he met on Earth who thinks that she's now out on an inter-galactic holiday, and is as
happy as pie for it. Believability aside, the Earth has just been destroyed for a inter-galactic super highway bypass after
all. Arthur’s buddy Ford, played my Mos Def is largely unfunny. He appearers to be trying very very hard to be as quirky as
he possibly can. His character is a good buddy to Arthur - he saves his life. But from then on, he's just along for the
ride. Marvin the robot actually becomes endearing towards the end, at which point he actully does something useful.
The plot involves Zaphod's quest to establish a name for himself as president, and find the ultimate question. You see,
millions of years ago, a computer was built named Deep Thought. It was designed to come up with the ultimate answer to life,
the universe and everything. It took 7.5 million years to compute, but eventually it reached its answer. 42. Perplexed, its
creators wondered which question 42 was an answer to, to which Deep Thought told them another computer would need to be
built to come up with the ultimate question, a living computer, a planet, Earth, which now happens to have been recently
destroyed, for a highway bypass.
Hitchhiker's contains a host of clever ideas, some very good laughs, a high dose of irony and admittedly some things
that are just very, very odd. Perhaps we would understand more about the universe if we knew how or why a pot of petunias
thinks what it thinks while falling through the sky, but that's why we're only the third most intelligent species on the
planet. The journey to the restaurant at the end of the universe is an interesting one. It may be an acquired taste for some,
but the ingredients are worth the charge in this adventure. Tip optional.
out of ten
Reviewed by Paul Boschen
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