In fact, I knew that the movie Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was filming very early, and it was at this time that some hardcore forums in China began to discuss this science fiction novel.
I got the first part of this series at Beijing Wangfujing Bookstore in January, and I couldn’t wait to read it when I returned to my bedroom. It took me three or four days to finish this not-so-rich novel. The feeling of the novel is very Brit. The so-called very British style refers to the overall style of the novel, with satirical jokes throughout the book. In fact, you don't have to read the complete book, you just have to read the beginning to know how ironic this book is.
Arthur’s house happened to be within the government’s plan to build the expressway. The local government decided to demolish Arthur’s house, but Arthur, a typical black tea lover; the mediocre British man discovered that the government bulldozer stopped on the same day. In front of his house... and when he protested, it was too late, because the plan had been publicized by the local planning department for a long time, but Arthur did not protest... It was precisely at this time that the Galaxy government was also preparing to build There is a galaxy fast channel, and the earth is right in the middle of this fast channel...
Unlike American humor, the British humor mostly lies in satire, and we can also see it directly from many previous film and television works. : A fish named Wanda, two big smoke guns, six heroes of the light pig, Sean the zombie...
So back to the topic, in fact, in the process of adapting the film from a novel to a movie, the original author of the novel, Douglas Adams, Sudden death in the gym (a moment of silence)... So the entire creative initiative from the movie to the back should be in the hands of another participant in the script adaptation, Karey Kirkpatrick, and this person is a professional script writer. The main work is Little Chicken Run The script of The Little Vampire (The Little Vampire, sorry, I had the honor to watch this naive children’s film...), and the latter is based on a children’s novel. At the same time, he also participated in the cartoon Madagascar as a creative consultant. .
As for the director, he adopted the newcomer Garth Jennings, a newcomer who has never made a real movie before. The British director's previous main work was to shoot music videos for the band and cooperated with him. The band has the famous Blur, and he filmed Coffee and TV among them; at the same time, he also cooperated with the REM band to film their other music video, Imitation of Life. Of course, you can say that he is a David Fincher-like character in a certain sense, and another director who has transformed from MV to film. Of course, some people only know Madonna, and some only know Blur.
Let’s get to the topic below. First, as the director who transformed from the MV, he directly played the first part of the film and played back to his old line-MV. Cutting a bunch of material shot from the Ocean Park Dolphinarium into a MV with cast and crew subtitles is also a good way to adjust the mood of the audience watching the movie, and the song is So Long & Thanks All The Fish; goodbye, thank you by the way, fish, this is also the title of one of the novels in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
British films are relatively flat compared to American films. This is also reflected in the beginning of the feature film. Everything is so flat and rigid. Of course, this is also related to the British weather that has created the British character. Compare British rock with metal rock that can represent the American rock style; compare traditional soccer with American football (rugby); compare British fish and chips with American fast food chains... If you look In the past year, the British movie Sean the Zombie, which is also famous at home and abroad, you will also find similarities and similarities. In general, the first part (Earth) is well adapted, removing the part of the foreman’s Mongolian cavalry lineage, removing the dialogue between Ford and the foreman, and directly adding the prop of beer, making the plot very fast. Go forward. For a literary work, if all the details are to be transformed into images, it is not impossible. There are good examples of novel authors and directors cooperating, such as Alan Renai’s collaboration with Duras in Hiroshima love. But if Xiang is an entertainment-oriented movie, it is natural to omit what can be omitted as much as possible to maintain the fluency and compactness of the story.
Everything in the story is developing normally, but the Vogon spacecraft, I personally think, has lost too much of the essence of the original work. For example, the passage in which Ford persuaded the young soldiers of Vogon and the passage in which the Vogon people recite poems...Well, it’s basically covered in the movie. You know, the passage in which Vogon people recite poems is my only laugh when I read the novel. To the sprayed part.
Next, the shape of the Golden Heart was very exciting to me. The appearance of the fastest ship in the universe is very special. It is not the streamlined shape I originally imagined, but a round ball. And Marvin’s style is even more classic. The cute big head and the character of constantly complaining about things around make it the most popular character in the film. I think its limelight has even overshadowed President Zanford, this The shape of the president of the universe with two heads and four arms is not bad, and the small details of his long hair are also well designed, which can reflect that he is a narcissistic person, but the only downside is that his special effects are slightly poor. A little bit.
Later, the plot changes of the whole film can be said to be huge. Many plots are either deleted or a little bit is drawn here, and then the extracted parts are added to form a new plot. The Galaxy policemen chasing them have also become Vogon soldiers, and the number has increased from the original two to dozens; the Shensi computer has also been moved from the room to the outdoors, becoming an idol who can only watch TV... These changes, despite the big changes. There is nothing too bad about it, but it makes the audience who have read the novel feel a little uncomfortable. After all, the audience has a truth about the adaptation of the film: try to be faithful to the original, if you are not particularly sure, please don’t mess Change, thank you.
We can understand this as after Adams’ death, the screenwriter abandoned the spiritual essentials of the original work and rewritten the script with professional thinking, because everyone knows that the screenwriter and the author are different. The montage thinking required by the screenwriter, except when adapting the script In addition to considering the story, the first prerequisite for service is to transform words into images. So I guess that the screenwriter gradually got away from the novel after the death of Mr. Adams, and devoted too much energy to the service of images. And Karey Kirkpatrick made a huge mistake, and many fans also said in their views on the film, after watching the film, they don’t know what they are talking about! Yes, did the audience notice that President Zanford had the motive of stealing the Heart of Gold? Zanford’s motive for stealing the Heart of Gold is not mentioned at all. In the novel, President Zanford is a person with very little power, because only five people in the universe know how powerful the president is, so he steals The heart of gold went to the long-lost planet to explore treasures. The treasure is basically not mentioned (note, it is basic), and the screenwriter seems to have portrayed him as an adventurous and neurotic idiot... well, although Zaford is indeed an idiot, in the novel , But all this is no longer a problem of breaking away from the novel, but a serious problem arising from the screenwriting of the entire movie. I can think of the scene in The Matrix 2 at this time... Agent Smith came out one by one and said: It is purpose that created us. Purpose that connects us. Purpose that pulls us. That guides us. That drives us . It is purpose that defines us. Purpose that binds us……but the so-called purpose, in this film, I don’t see it.
Let’s talk about the director. Generally speaking, the director’s performance is quite satisfactory. There is nothing wrong with it, and there is nothing too brilliant. However, in terms of the rhythm of the plot, the general feeling is very stable, but if you look closely, you will find that there is In many places, he still appears to be very immature, and there is no skill at all in the transition. The transition looks rather blunt, with a typical accumulation of material. This is also a problem left when shooting the MV, although the MV looks very rhythmic. However, it is all thanks to the editing work in the later stage. The so-called MV shooting is lip-synching, and then shoot N tapes or N rolls of film, and finally put these films and materials together, and feel that they are visually comfortable or special. The footages of the photos are cut together, and they basically become the music video we are familiar with. We don’t need to review the materials and practices.
An excellent novel with an unrecognizable script is really disappointing and disappointing. In any case, there is always a scapegoat for failure. After analyzing so many things this time, we can see that the film has: decent actors, excellent styling, mediocre but young directors, and failed screenwriters... The task of becoming a lamb was gloriously handed over to our screenwriter-Karey Kirkpatrick. In the end, I just hope that if you want to shoot a sequel to the restaurant at the end of the universe, please choose carefully in the screenwriting, after all, Adams is no longer there.
I admit that when I saw the For Douglas subtitles at the end of the film, I was very moved. Similarly, to commemorate this outstanding writer, this article is also dedicated to the great Douglas Adams!
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