> I enjoyed myself. The "Guide" parts were very well > done.
> I wish they didn't change the plot so much. For > example.. > A) In the books there was no romance between Trillian and > Arthur That's one of those oddities about our culture that I've come to grudgingly accept -- that no matter how completely and utterly unimportant to the plot a romance is between the main character and anyone else, hell-or-high-water there absolutely must be one, even at the expense of time that could be spent showing much more interesting content which actually does appear in the book the film is based on. Although I do remember Zaphod being the guy who nabbed her from Arthur at the party (iirc there was a mention of "that was before the extra arm and head"). Seems like his relating that story was different too tho... iirc it wasn't something that had happened recently, it was something that had happened a while back and Arthur related it after meeting Zaphod (rather than in the pub). > B) Zaphod was trying to meet the man who ruled the world, > not find the ultimate question. It was the mice who want > the question. Though wasn't his intent the same? He wanted something that would make him famous forever. > Zaphod doesn't show the vaguest interest in > it until the end of the second book. > Startilartiblast (sp?) is the one shows Arthur the > info about Deep Thought. Which doesn't happen until very near the end of the book, just before the scene with the mice, which I suspect they felt wouldn't work very well in the film... I think their reasoning was probably that the average viewer would feel like they needed some obligatory road-map prior to most of the film to hold their focus. > The mice are not from Margrathrea (sp?) Yea, that was odd, but it was a logical change -- and given interpretation could have been what was intended in the book (minus them changing shape after being crushed). One of the minor annoyances for me was that Slardibartfast delivers the line "best laid plans of mice". I remembered that line being delivered during Arthur's conversation with the mice, which imo would have been a lot funnier... mice: Best laid plans of mice. arthur: and men mice: what? arthur: best laid plans of mice and men mice: what the hell do men have to do with it, you freaking git? Just answer the stupid question! or something along those lines... I remembered there being a real visceral thing in the book about that conversation -- the mice going out of there way to be as condescending as possible. > C) After the earth blows up, the Vogans don't show up > again until the > second book. They seemed to take center stage here. > D) The point of view gun, and rescue of Trillian was all > new. The romance between Zaphod and the VP was familiar, but I don't remember what was said about it in the book... I don't remember them getting together tho -- I only remember it being mentioned (about the time she was telling Zaphod to "come back" with the Heart of Gold). I do wish they'd made the Heart of Gold tennis-shoe shaped. Although the coming of the Great White Hankercheif was mentioned in the book, it was just a side-note (something from the Guide I thought), so the church bit was new (iirc) and I liked the rescue from Vogsphere a lot (more so than the pov gun, although those bits were pretty good). Although I must say that given the history of the HHG I can't fault them too much for changes to the plot. I remember having heard that over the years there had been several renditions of the trillogy (the books, at least one radio show and a bbc tv series), and that in each treatment of the series they found it was impossible to maintain the original story as a result of people being stingy over copyright issues. Oh, and the yarn scene was completely new. :P Got a good laugh tho. > And as Isaac said, the handling of Zaphod's two heads > are a bit odd. > I thought a bunch of things were not explained well > enough for non-fans of the books. I am a fan, and the relationship between Zaphod and the VP wasn't explained enough for me. Not bothered by it, just scratching my head. > Zaphod blocked off a part of his brain in > each head to > become president. He didn't know why he did it. ( I > think until Zarniwoop > tells him in Restaurant). They kind of glazed over that. Probably concerned about people scratching their heads about it... similar to Zaphod showing the stuff about Deep Thoughts early on. Though that being the case I wonder why they left the vp so ambiguous. > They stressed the importance of towels in the movie, but > left out the "Guide" bit about towels. Yea, that's an unfortunate oversight. I'll bet that will be in the extras on the DVD when it's released... likely as a deleted scene. > Overall, I enjoyed it, though. It was a good job of > capturing Adam's > writing style in a visual form. Yea, the new bits were pretty Adams-esque. Though he was listed as one of the executive producers -- I think he died shortly after the filming started. It'd been in production for I think 4 yrs. s. isaac dealey 954.522.6080 new epoch : isn't it time for a change? add features without fixtures with the onTap open source framework http://www.fusiontap.com http://www.sys-con.com/author/?id=4806 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Flash for programmers - Flash MX Pro http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=56 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:155998 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
