Well . . . I’ve been waiting to see The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy for a loooooong time . . . been watching for the news ever since Douglas Adams announced it was go . . . love the novels, teach ’em in my Science Fiction courses at the university (both undergraduate and graduate levels) . . . it is sad that Adams never got to see the final result . . . but it’s a nice film and does indeed capture both the spirit and the context of the series.

One can’t really compare the film to the old television series or even the radio series . . . the media and the times are so very different.

There are bits here and there that I prefer from the older pieces but there are other bits that I find delightful in the film. Obviously, the film had more money and better special effects . . . much stronger product but the others are safe within their proper context.

The love story between Arthur and Trillian is pretty much film-only and can be understood in that context. I like the film’s Marvin . . . really . . . well done . . . the original Marvin does have a cameo in the film though and that was rather cute.

Missed Milliway’s but it makes sense to cut it. Looking forward with the hope for sequels . . . albeit, I doubt it will happen.

Here in Taiwan the film opened this week across from Madagascar with War of the Worlds still doing a lot of business so while it appeared that Hitchhiker’s had a good crowd, it seemed to mostly be folks who couldn’t get into the other films.

I had been anticipating the film so much that I actually positively hallucinated seeing an ad for it on the side of Taipei 101 (turned out to be a billboard for a watch company, go figure).

Regretted not having my towell with me for the film (had meant to bring one) but while they mentioned the need for one, the film characters don’t explain the why of it . . . odd bit that.

Yes, there is an anaglyphic 3D shot in the film (the holographic head with the missiles) . . . I brought cardboard anaglyph glasses for everyone in our party . . . the kids got a kick out of it . . . even if it was just for one very short scene. Nifty.