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H2G2 The Review

Well, the Earth has blown up. That’s right, it’s 3:00 AM and I have just returned from my viewing of H2G2 the movie. Way to go Douglas on this amazing feat. For those of you who have read the book, or know the story, this has been something like 26 years in the making, and I can only imagine why (the book isn’t really designed for movies).

So how was it? Was it as bad as the reviews were saying? Was it good? Did it follow the story? Should I go see it? I will try to get to all of these and more.

Let me start off the same way the BBC did: DON’T PANIC. The movie isn’t all that bad. It’s not a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings, but it’s not horrible. The movie was about 75% from the book, 25% not. Some bits were taken from the other books and added in earlier, some were extensions of things that were in the original book but never part of the plot. Some were… just different. This isn’t a bad different though.

Like I said before, without this difference, I don’t know how you turn this book into a movie. The book has a hard enough plot to imagine, let alone put in film so that it would flow properly. The point was there in more ways than one, which is more than I could say for H2G2 the book. If someone knows what the point of the book is, please inform me.

Marvin was spectacular.

As for the cast, well that’s simple. Take the cast from Love Actually and put them in this movie. That’s pretty much it. It felt like it got off to a rough start with the acting, but things seem to work there way out in the end.

As far as things that were upsetting: For those of you who love detail and live to know the book, you will notice that the movie says something from the book that is very very wrong. The odds of surviving getting thrown out of an airlock is not a 10 digit phone number. It’s a 7 digit phone number. In fact, it’s 2^276709. I don’t even have to look it up. I wanted to yell, YOUR WRONG to the movie, but I felt it might ruin the mood. The only other thing I was a tad dissappointed with was the editing of some of the funnier book scenes. IE: deep thought, the airlock, the beginning. Oh well.

As far as things that were awesome: At least 10 people (2 from my party) showed up with a towel to see the movie. They had all the key references that make appearances in the book (IE: the references to star wars, star trek, and Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series (Encloypedia Galatica). The Guide itself was well done in my mind. Graphics were wonderful. Marvin was.. Marvin. It was definently random. It was worth seeing in my mind.

Read the book first.

Well on that note, I don’t want to ruin any of the plot changes, or any of the cool factor any more than I might have already. Thank you to Rob, Amber, John, and my sister for attending with me. Special thanks to Rob as well for coming with a Towel. You know, I’m hungry… Restaurant at the End of the Universe… Here I come.