IMDB's Facebook page has reminded me of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie from 2005. The movie gets a lot of hate (including from me), and I'm not sure if it's deserved anymore.
The biggest criticism of the film is that it unnecessarily deviates from the book without anything especially fresh all it's own. I used to agree, but since seeing the movie I've experienced much more of the Hitchhikers Guide franchise notably the radio series (all 5 of them), and the last two books, (which it seems few people have read... Probably because they aren't that great). One thing I've learned is consistently, and continuity are the least important things in the franchise.HhGttG is not about the search for the ultimate question, escaping Vogon burocracy and the evil conspiracy of psychiatrists, or any other of the bizzare plots the franchise contains. After all, each adaptation of the franchise has wildly different plots. Just try and compare the secondary phase of the radio series to the second book: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. Or the text adventure game to any other bit of hitchhikers media. But one thing ALWAYS stays consistent: it is about a typical british man suddenly thrust into an incomprehensible universe and trying his damnedest to cope.
And you know what as I recall the movie does that. So complaining about changes seems a bit odd. And it did have some clever new ideas: the Vogons being stubborn and uncreative cause they evolved on a planet that literally slaps them in the face whenever they have an original thought is pretty damn clever and makes for an amusing set piece. Also its a nicely subtle explanation for why their noses are perched high on their foreheads: they're less likely to get broken by the face slapping plants up there. And of course there's the POV gun which pulls double duty as a comedic set piece and a shortcut to accelerate character drama.
About that drama though... It feels so... American? It's been a bit since I've seen it as I said before but the whole Trillian, Zaphod, Arthur love triangle melodrama sticks out in my mind as TERRIBLE. To my memory it was taken way too seriously. Honestly Arthur and Trillian shouldn't end up together, Trillian's character arc has previously always ended with her living a happily single life as a career woman and that's EXCELLENT! Throughout all the other adaptations she is intelligent, highly educated, and ambitious. She could end up with someone just not Arthur... Never Arthur he is fundamentally unambitious. Arthur pining after Trillian is fairly essential to his character, but above all else it is essential that he just wants a quiet life on earth. The one thing this bizzare universe he is thrust into can't give him. and that means he should NEVER end up with Trillian. The love interest Adams gave him in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish suits him soo much better. But someone somewhere along the line must have insisted that the boy and girl end up together and so they neutered Trillian's ambition, and made Arthur far more adventurous to make it work.
Anyway I just felt like getting those thoughts out.
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