Comment on the Comments on the Comment on the Comment on the movie

[andrewducker]

So, following yesterday's post about the HH movie review, I'd like to make two things clear:

1) I don't really care if the movie is 'authentic' to the book, radio series, tv series, LP or any other version of Hitchhiker's.  I care only that it be a good movie, and entertaining.  There's enough in the trailer to make it clear that they've got a few basic plot points in there, which makes me happy, but frankly they can change things around indefinitely and I won't care too much.  Did I weep for the lack of Haggunenons in the TV or book versions?  No - they didn't actually matter.  What mattered was the satire of modern society through its portrayal in SFnal clothes.

2) The reason that the review worried me was, therefore, because it claimed that the film was incoherent in its own right.  That plot threads were created and then ignored - punch lines turned up without the set-up, bits of Adams were quoted semi-verbatim, but with the hyperbole taken out, as if the people doing the conversion hadn't known why it was funny.  Some of the things the reviewer was worried about didn't bother me, but the lack of a film that holds together itself and makes a coherent, logical story, does.  And while the books (for instance) are all over the place, taking leaps hither and thither, they actually hold together remarkably well - as Adams actually had a good grasp of plot.

I hope the version that has been seen so far is just one edit, and is currently being re-edited into a more coherent form, because it sounds to me like a decent(-ish) film was made, and then chopped down to size in order to please the production company (in this case, Disney).

Comments

[hawkida.livejournal.com]

I dunno... I think Simo's too close to the source material to really judge whether things still hang together with bits missing from them and he is really very much into detail so perhaps lines that have corners knocked off look like they've been planed to death by him.

I'm relatively fresh to the show. I read the books in my teens, watch the TV series in my early 20s a few times, but it's been ten plus years since I paid a whole lot of attention. As such I'm going to go and see it without any of the preconceptions Simo holds and see whether it's as bad as he reckons.

[johnbobshaun.livejournal.com]

Its quite possible, maybe even likely, that I'm going to agree with the review. I love HHGTG and it will jar when they miss bits. Probably in a way that, from my perspective, will make it feel incoherent.Check out Kim Newman's more postive review for comparison, tho.

http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/incinemas/ReviewInFull.asp?FID=9807

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

Nice U-turn there, Mr Blair ;-)

[andrewducker]

Show me where I contradict myself.

[andrewducker]

In fact, what I just said is a reiteration of what I said in my reply to you yesterday here:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/andrewducker/900858.html?thread=4285946#t4285946

[sweinberg.livejournal.com]

Totally agree, Andrew.

On one hand, a lot of his criticisms sounded like "passionate fanboy nitpicks," but on the other, he did make some insightful gripes about the movie as a whole not sticking together... so I won't dismiss his negativity outright.

I just want this movie to be great. I really do.