by Abel Horwitz
Daily Lobo
Blame it on "The Lord of the Rings" for taking a book with a ravenous cult following and successfully translating it into a film.
If it weren't for director Peter Jackson making such good films, other directors wouldn't think they could do it too.
So when a handful of Douglas Adams fiends got together and decided to make a movie out of his extraordinary book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, they felt pretty confident they could translate it to the big screen.
They failed.
Hitchhiker's Guide is one of the funniest books ever written. Adams' dry sense of humor, brilliant storyline and ingenious ideas have been delighting fans since the late '70s with the story's various incarnations as a radio series and then as books.
Adams was the kind of writer who defied conventions, brought up new ideas and put it all into a fantasy world that blew away most anyone who read his work.
The story is fascinating, placing ordinary man Arthur Dent in an extraordinary situation involving the answer to the ultimate question, the total destruction of the earth and the third-worst poetry in the galaxy.
However, it is Adams' distinctive style that not only makes sense of it all but also makes it funny.
I will give credit to the movie for trying to be as true to Adams' humor as possible.
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But without Adams to fully craft the film - he died in 2001 - it comes off as a pale imitation of his work. Things that make sense in the book seem difficult to execute in the movie and visually aren't nearly as funny as they are when read.
One of the most glaring weaknesses of the film is the character Marvin, the chronically depressed robot that serves as the comic relief in the book. In the film, he's turned into an adorable sidekick who occasionally spouts pithy remarks in Alan Rickman's voice.
Another major hurdle the filmmakers failed to leap was making the movie accessible to people who aren't familiar with the book. This proved to be even harder than trying to please the fans. The movie has some funny parts, but mostly it's just confusing.
Hitchhiker's Guide is already difficult to explain. The attempt to visually describe the book's more complex concepts - such as the improbability drive - to someone who's unfamiliar with it falls flat.
Hitchhiker's Guide is an amazing book but makes for a terrible film. All the delight, excitement, and humor are missing from the movie.
Instead, the film shows how truly brilliant Adams was and how impossible it is to recreate his work.
