Beware of the Leopard...

Well, I enjoyed the film, I must say! Here's my review, since I have nothing better to do at work today and am slightly miffed that the whole world is off work today except me (ok, slight exaggeration).

Bloody bank holidays...

It's been a long time coming, but the new film version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a satisfying, diverting effort.

I knew I was going to like it when the opening coda, of dolphins performing tricks for dumb, fat humans mutated into a Cole Porter-style musical number, 'So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish'. The opening scenes, of Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, were always my favourite, and since they couldn't really be topped from the TV version, are skipped through snappily but amusingly. So, no clever clever exposition between Dent and Prosser at the bulldozer (and no 'Beware of the Leopard' dialogue!) but it does advance the story rapidly enough for a movie that begins with the end of the world.

The event itself is rather stunningly dealt with; a deliberately over-dramatic pullout that builds and builds and just keeps on building, pulling out from Earth, past the Vogon ships, out into space, and ending with a whimper rather than a bang as the Earth just 'boils away into space', leaving the Vogon ships in a sphere; one of the more breathtaking images from the movie.

Director Garth Jennings does these cinematic scenes very well, and handles the humour equally impressively. The film manages to balance two kinds of storytelling; the linear thrust of the adventure, and Stephen Fry as the book's magnificent narrative voice.

There are flaws that don't quite sit as comfortably; Sam Rockwell as Zaphod Beeblebrox is funny but his two heads are strangely less convincing than even Mark Wing-Davey's from the TV series! It doesn't work and neither does the newly-written subplot involving John Malkovich's Humma Kuvula (hey, the two heads don't work, let's get rid of one of them for the entire movie!) - it just smacks of awkwardness. The Point of View gun is pretty clever though, and does lead to a great scene involving Marvin the Paranoid Android. And about Marvin; he's cuter than the TV version, ably voiced by Alan Rickman, and overall pretty well done.

Zooey Deschanel is cute and vulnerable as Trillian (let's face it, an improvement on Sandra Dickinson), Martin Freeman funny and likeable as Arthur Dent, adding to an appealing movie. There are some welcome touches for fans like a cameo by Simon Jones and a certain robot, and the film is, thankfully, not TOO Americanised. I personally liked the attraction between Arthur and Trillian, always felt it was undeveloped in the original, although I can see why some may feel it tacked on. For me, it was touching to see a bond between, let's face it, the only two humans alive, amid all the madness and jokes and whizz-bang special effects.

So, bit of a rollercoaster, but overall there is enough here that works to counteract what doesn't, and the lulls are rapidly followed by laughs to keep you sailing through. Jennings is brave enough to not fix what ain't broke, but to add some flourishes and laughs along the way that diverge from the original, but usually to the film's merit.

So that was the primary phase of Douglas Adams' space epic in the movies. And despite the slightly misjudged end line about 'the end of the universe' (it's a measure of time, not space) a sequel would be great. Well, I'd go and see it.