h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I wasn't sure if I wanted to see this film. The customing looked terrible, and for every good comic book movie there are at least ten bad ones.

This one was good in parts. The costumes were indeed terrible - that crinkley leather just made Affleck look as if he'd slept in it, and his face is too long for that short mask, which looked as if it had been made for someone else.

Talking of looking as if made for someone else - Bullseye seemed to belong to a different movie, a much funnier and less tragic one. Everyone else in the film was vaguely realistic - given the ridiculous origin of which too much was made, a common problem in Super Hero films.

But the wire-work was fun, and Garner impressed as Eleckra, though the character was softened from the comic, probably because such a brutal woman would not appeal as a heroine to the mass market. We are expecting very high standards of CGI now and I am afraid that, like 'Spiderman' this film did not reach the heights that we expect. Still, there were one or two lovely effects - seeing a person's face in the fall of raindrops came over wonderfully - and the fights were excellent.

Pacing could have been better as the origin sequences in particular sagged rather badly. It's a short film too, so no-one should have been looking at their watches. Which they were.

One thing puzzles me though - why did Matt keep showing off his superpowers to Foggy and Elektra? This is a secret identity????

Weh-Hey....

I was going to put a bit in my 'journal' about this but seeing as you've posted I'll bask in your reflected glory as ever.

I've been having huge misgivings about this film for months and was almost dreading seeing it, believe it or not I don't really like being proven right when I think somethings going to be rubbish. I like surprises, and this one gave me a few.

I liked it, it's flawed but has some great parts to it that might have added to a really good whole.. saying that though I still enjoyed it. Loved the filming style, the grainyness of the print and the pervading darkness worked a treat. One scene that struck a really good chord was when Murdoch strips off and goes to the bathroom and we see his cabitnet stuffed full of painkillers (percodan etc), and the scars on his back.

Affleck...hmmmm... must admit, visually he bothered me, he reminded me of when people (not me I might add) do that rather revolting trick where they stretch a condom over their head. That cowl just didn't fit right, maybe they should have gone for a looser one attached ot the neck. I didn't think he was to bad all things considered, wasn't too keen on the voice over but it served it's purpose but he came over reasonably well as a man riddled with 'Catholic guilt' and the religious tones (sorry bad phrasing) came through really well all through.

Thought Farrell was abysmal, he nearly wrecked the whole movie. Shame really as I thought he was great in Minority Report. It was just too over the top and daft when the rest of the film was trying to take itself seriously (and succeeding fairly well I thought). The fight scenes were brutal and the train track episode a real shocker, something I thought struck a really strong note. The last fight with Fisk was excellent and again brutal, I'm quite looking forward to the DVD release where they say they're going to reinstate the subplot and cut back in some of the more brutal fight scenes.

Agree on Garner, i thought she was very convincing , if a little too 'wholesome', maybe we'll get to know more of her background in the next film where, with any luck they'll point out that she is an assassin (or maybe they've dithced that completely, certainly seemed so).

Urk ramble over, sorry all this non-postin has made me a bit verbose.

Hang on, did I miss something? Isn't Elektra brown bread ?

Yeah, overall I quite liked it. Structurewise, they could have made the love story more coherent, I thought: she won't give him the time of day, they kick each other's asses (Matt making no effort to hide his superpowers) have a bit of a chat and suddenly they're on the roof smooching? It felt like there was a scene missing there, like a romantic dinner à deux or something.

Like you say, Farrell might have been better advised to use a bit less pork product. OTOH MCD was excellent as the Kingpin, intelligent, ruthless and not afraid to get his hands dirty. The sonar-vision FX was for me a high point, it evoked really well how DD "sees".

One quibble, why was Matt in court apparently prosecuting the rapist? Wouldn't that be a job for the DA's office? (I think I've been watching too many US cop shows....)

Coming Soon: Daredevil 2:Rehab; in which we see Matt in the Betty Ford Clinic for his painkiller addiction.

Nobody ever dies in comics ED...

'cept maybe Bucky, and Jason Todd.

ps.. yeh, MCD was very very good, the epitome of the Kingpin, never frightened to fight his own battles. The only thing I do think is that Fisk (in the comic, but I guess that's a wee bit irrelevant) would have taken the deal from Natchios. he's a businessman as well as a crimelord and never one to turn down a good deal. Personaly I don't mind changes, not a huge DD reader anyway, and the fact that Fisk is white in the books means nothing, MCD carries it off so well.

We played spot the geeks in there last night, there were six of us still seated at the end of the credits waiting for the so-called plot point. Not much of a plot point either..

You can spot the geeks by who giggles at the in-jokes. People looked at us funny when we nudged each other over John Romita et al

Hmmm... Morpheus? Though can an anthropomorphic personification be alive in the first place. The original Supergirl is still dead, isn't she?

I think she is, not read it for ages. Also Alec Holland is, I guess technically dead,

Yeh, chuckling at in-jokes.. we got a few funny looks as well, especially as I let out an audible 'ha' when three names were reeled off (can't remember properly but I think they were henchmen or policemen, and one of them was 'Bendis'. Speaking of which I've just had the large Bendis scripted Daredevil hard back plonked in my lap to read, looks wonderful and I like Powers a lot, though some of the language leaves a bit to be desired. The issue where Walker's partner beats up a female suspect with repeated use of the C word didn't sit very well with me. There's not even a mature readers warning on the cover of Powers..

Oh, talking of in-jokes, watched Ghost World last night at last, loved the little ref to Robert Crumb's band when Steve Buscemi's Seymore was going through his vinyls. Apparantly his daughter Sophie did a lot of the drawings in Enid's sketchbook as well.