My Life as Open Source

Before I saw The Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy, having read reviews of it, over on slashdot and in various web sites, I’ve discovered:

1. Everybody likes one or two things about it
2. Everybody hates several things about it
3. They are always different things; some things someone likes, someone else hates.

Some reviews really dampened my enthusiasm for the film. I thought I would rather go re-read the book and be done with it…

Anyway, we saw Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy yesterday, let me give a quick rundown of what the film’s about: a loser called Arthur Dent finds out that his best friend is an alien, and narrowly escapes the destruction of Earth. Wackiness ensues as he ends up on a bizarre spaceship with mostly annoying characters on it. Shit happens, then the movie ends.

Rather than list all the things that didn’t work or bored me, maybe I should mention the few things that I did like. That way it’s a shorter list.

I liked the “So long and thanks for all the fish” song used in the intro, in fact I found it thrilling, transporting and charming. Unfortunately it’s about the only thing I liked about the film.

“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy also talks about love. It says: avoid it.” – wise words from the Guide!

Using Stephen Fry as the voice of the Hitchhiker’s Guide itself, explaining these little bits of galactic trivia was perfect.

The biggest problem for me is, the plot is crap and the guy playing Arthur Dent is annoying. He just didn’t work for me. I like Martin Freeman, and thought he was great in The Office, and I thought prior to seeing this that he would be perfect for the role, but I was as wrong as the producers were in casting him. It’s strange, but I found it easier to accept Mos Def as Ford Prefect than I did Freeman as Dent. He flat out didn’t work for me. To be more blunt, I found him freaking annoying and quite tedious, like much of the film.

Overall, it wasn’t a totally unenjoyable experience, but I can tell you, if you read the book, you won’t love the film.

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