Critter's Cave

I apologize for the lateness of this review, but after I saw the movie, I felt that I needed to go back and read the first book to see if my first impressions held up.
Since I first heard it was being produced, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has been at the top of my personal Must-See list, with only Revenge of the Sith and possibly Batman Begins up there with it. This will be a mostly spoiler-free review, but if you’ve read the books, there is not going to be much to be spoiled anyway.

I would like to note at the outset of this review that I enjoyed myself enormously while watching this movie. If it were its own movie ala Galaxy Quest, I would rate it at least 4 stars, maybe 4.5. However, it is not its own movie – it is supposed to be the movie version of one of science fiction’s most beloved series (and by series I’m including the radio and tv episodes as well as the books). Unfortunately, while it is a funny movie, by and large it is not “Douglas Adams” funny. It’s missing that spark that is uniquely Adams’. Those parts of the movie that had that spark were those portions that were lifted almost whole from the book. I guess my problem is that while it had some zany and bizarre sequences, it was mostly slapstick – it didn’t have those brilliant non-sequiturs that are the hallmark of Adams’ work.
The casting for the most part was decent. There was some consternation among fans when Mos Def was cast as Ford Prefect, but I felt that he did an excellent job, and after re-reading the book felt that he stayed pretty true to the character where the script would allow. Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent was a casting masterstroke, as was Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin. I really couldn’t see two other actors filling their roles quite as well. Sam Rockwell’s Zaphod Beeblebrox and Zoey Deschanel’s Trillian, by comparison, didn’t come off as well. I really didn’t like the Rockwell’s whole (as he put it) “Vince Vaughn as Elvis” take on the character nor the method used for Zaphod’s 2nd head, and the whole “lemon juicer” bit (you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it) was more bizarre than funny. Zoey as Trillian was passable, but the way the part was written just about any twenty-something halfway-competent actress could have filled the role.
I will say that the visual effects were outstanding, although I was a little disappointed with Deep Thought. The Heart of Gold was just as I’d imagined it, however, and I really liked the HoG’s shuttle – I really want to scratchbuild a model of that Real Soon Now. The Vogons were excellent, as they should coming out of Henson’s Creature Shop, but it was pretty obvious from their style, pacing, facial expression, etc that they WERE Henson-created.
Ultimately, however, I think most of the failings in this movie were in the script. I think it is pretty obvious which parts were written by Adams, and which were (re)written by Karey Kirkpatrick
Overall not a bad movie, but it was still disappointing. 3 out of 5 stars if you’ve read/seen Hitchhiker’s stuff previously, and 4 out of 5 if you’ve been unfortunate enough not to have been exposed to Adams before