Post #156443 by donhonyc on Tue, May 3, 2005 10:16 AM

I saw this film last night and wasn't too blown away. Although some might mistake me for one that has read the book, I never have. I was always interested in checking it out and actually borrowed a copy from a friend but never got down to giving a good read.

So from an outsider's point of view I'd say that the film was visually amazing and really entertaining on that level. Amazing creativity and set design. Not too much CGI and some real puppet characters. I thought Marvin was really cool and had tons of potential, but it didn't seem like they used him in the story as much as I would have like to have seen.

The story itself on film seemed like it was geared toward those that have already read the book. There were a few people in the theater that were really into it. I was just assuming they were fans of the book. For an outsider like me who never read the book, aside from picking up on the philisophical life messages, which were really cool, I didn't know what the hell they were doing or what they were talking about.

Some of these Sci-Fi/philosophy of life books don't always translate well on screen. Kurt Vonnegut's 'Slaughter House Five' is another one like this that comes to mind. That book was amazing, but the movie like "Hitchhiker's", was a creative attempt at putting a very abstract story on screen and falling short. Some books just shouldn't be made into films.

Great, and surprising performance by Mos Def. Zooey Deschanel is easy on the eyes too. She really does have a unique sort fo beauty which wasn't really given the attention it deserved considering she was the love interest and all that.

The theater I saw it in, The Ziegfeld in NYC, one of the last great movie palaces, screened it in Digital Projection which I must say was pretty amazing.

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2005-05-03 10:30 ]