Don't Panic.

[kyrielle]

Doesn't that have to be the title of a post saying you've seen Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Anyway, we did go and see it at the matinee showing today. It was...hmm. It was a movie; it was funny; it was true enough to the source material and still weird; and for me, it worked. As usual with movies, I left thinking I'd gotten about an hour of value out of a two-hour-ish span; they always seem like they should be able to fit more in. But very few movies ever transcend that for me, so I'll take what's there. It was fun. It was funny. There were some neat moments.

Comments

[pheon.livejournal.com]

I have debated going to see it. I enjoyed the books, but I didn't find them all that great. And I've had friends tell me

"Don't go see it if you really, really liked the books, 'cause while not bad, they don't follow the books closely enough."

and others say

"Don't go see it unless you really, really know the books 'cause they make all kinds of references you won't get."

I'll probably wait until it comes out on DVD.

[kyrielle]

I suspect it is a bit of both. I read the books, but a long time ago, and I didn't love them; and it worked fine for me. I gather there were people upset at jokes that didn't make it in, at changes, at things being cut out due to time, etc. And I'm not sure I'd've enjoyed it as much without a frame of reference. People who haven't read the books may've been expecting it to make sense, which is not really a HHGttG sort of thing to do, I fear.

I'm not sure there's much reason to see it in theater, though. It doesn't do the sort of special effect or presentation that's really best on the big screen or anything.