I saw it last night, and i will have a post about it on my site (www.easilyamusing.com) soon, but... here's an interview on /. from the producer:
interviews.slashdot.org/interv...9.shtml
and in my opinion, it was what Adams wanted, but it was what he wanted LATER in his life, when he was an environmentalist...

"Oh, and I wasn't really happy with how they hooked Arthur and Trillian up.... " same here.
just got back,i liked it visually,except for the chintzy looking stuff on humma what's-his-names planet.
i wish they had gotten Terry Gilliam to direct.
got as few chuckles out of the audience,less from me.
i think i'll re-read the trilogy now so i can get some laughs.

I appreciated the film for what it was... but it wasn't good.

I thought Arthur and Ford were both VERY poorly acted and written.

They are the HEART of the book!! And there was none of the real dry sense of humor feeling. For me, HHG2TG was all about RESIGNATION. Sort of "Ah, well, here's the universe in all its zaniness again."

And the Arthur/Ford relationship is supposed to give a bridge for the reader/viewer to experience a taste of that resignation that Marvin, Ford, the Vogons... well, EVERYBODY feels about their existence.

Arthur nor Ford never had a sardonic smile the whole movie. Trillian was just a big distraction from EVERYTHING and don't get me started on Zephod. In the book he felt much more like... well, just so DIFFERENT from THAT. I guess in the book I always felt like he WASN'T good looking, he was just sort of a bumbler who got what he wanted because of his passion, not seduction.

Nothing felt ALIVE for me in the movie. It was all staged.

That being said, fx were good, vogons were neat.

Does anyone agree w/me here? The movie just missed the basic point, in terms of acting and the writing for the leads.

My stomach, in a deperate attempt to save the occupants of the theater, burst out of my mouth and strangled the film operator. But we did get a refund

I listened to the first broadcast of the radio series in May 1975 and was captivated. I watched the TV version with delight. I fell asleep during the movie. A classic case for keeping the author away from a screenplay, particularly when the author's life has moved on and the author is no longer the person who created the work . We all change. Books travel immaculately by comparison.

What a huge disappointment.

I saw this on an airplane earlier this week. Well, the first 30 minutes. That was all I could handle. IT SUCKED!! I suppose, after reading the above posts, I should have stuck it out waiting for the "good" part at the end, whatever that might be.

I think the main problem was the adaptation process. Who the hell did it and why didn't anyone kill that person? I mean, they literally cut some lines from bits but left in other lines from those bits that couldn't work without the lines that had been cut. It was retarded. Better to put in half as many COMPLETE bits than twice as many HALF bits. Time after time, I heard a line from the book recited by a character bereft of the necessary set up to give it punch. This seems like such a basic error, I can't understand how it slipped through all levels of quality control and into the final product. Why didn't any say, "Uh...this punch line doesn't work without the set up line we've cut."

Too, it seemed to me like often the characters were sleepwalking through their scenes. Like Ford and Arthur would be saying lines half-heartedly, as if embarrassed to be saying their absurd lines. Sometimes it seemed they were trying to ruin lines. When Arthur & Ford are in the Vogon ship about to be released into space, there's the part where Ford jumps to the side and says, "Wait! What's this button?!" Giving Arthur hope they won't die. When Arthur excitedly asks, "What is it?!!" Ford says, "No, just kidding. We are going to die." It's hilarious because of its sharpness. In the movie, they changed Fords lines to be something long and rambling about having found something that could save them...then, no, he didn't after all. The problem was, the revised dialogue lacked the sharpness that would allow the joke to hit.

And a lot of the time, the poor delivery by the actors -- both timing and tone -- showed they really didn't understand how the line was meant to be funny in the first place. And apparently no one else -- such as the director -- did either. I'm just so amazed at how bad stuff like this gets made. It's like a painting done by blind people... They THINK they are doing well, but they just cannot see how bad it is. Perhaps, though, the audience, too, is blind and is similarly unaware? In that case maybe ignorance is bliss and I should go get fucked up and kill some brain cells so I can laugh at crap like everyone else seems to be doing.

Meta~4