Have Towel, Will Travel

A few brief comments about the new Hitchhiker's film that opened Friday.

Pros

* You could tell it was a labor of love from start to finish
* Singing dolphins
* The planetyard sequence
* The casting was near perfect. Sam Rockwell as Zaphod as George W. Bush. Brilliant.
* The Guide, itself, was better than how I imagined it looking. Voice-based interface. Bright colors on a sleek, black mobile device. Imagine the PSP merged with the old Powerbook 540 line.
* Vogons were real creatures instead of CGI.
* The romance angle wasn't half-bad. Trillian comes off far better in the film compared to being almost a non-being in the books after "Restaurant."
* Deep Thought (Helen Mirren!!) watching cartoons for millions of years
* Nods and winks to the fans of the TV series and books
* Yarnspace
* Marvin

Cons

* Story was a bit jumbled; ended with a couple too many loose ends.
* The vice president in love with Zaphod
* The rebooting of Earth Mark II sorta negates Arthur's importance from the books
* No entry on the importance of towels
* No Peril-Sensitive sunglasses
* No mention of Ford's "Mostly Harmless" entry
* No clear reason given for the mice to go after Arthur's brain.

But all in all, I had a great time, and my wife loved it more than I did. Parts of me where overwhelmed, stunned by bliss by actually seeing "Hitchhiker's" as a real, fully fledged motion picture. I'm going to rent this on DVD at the very least, just to see all the extras (fingers-crossed it'll be better than the paltry "12 Monkeys" special edition I just reviewed) and to see it again with a digital projection at home. I wouldn't be surprised if I go see it again before it hits rental shelves. It's not a film for everyone (and it's bound to piss off the religious conservatives in this country), but it's a rare beast of good comedy and science fiction eye candy.

Oh, and one more thing about "12 Monkeys." Terry Gilliam (auteur, mad genius, drama queen) should never be allowed to adapt a William Gibson novel. His brain would explode.