The Hitchhikers' Guide To The Galaxy Review

It's taken years and years and years to get Douglas Adams' iconic sci-fi novel to the screen and now finally it's here - but with claims that the finished product bears little or no relation to the book, are hardcore "Hitchhiker's" fans in for a treat or is it time to panic?

The film certainly does open in much the same way as the book as the Earth is done away with by the bureaucratic Vogons to make way for a hyperspace bypass. Fortunately ordinary everyman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) has just found out that his friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) is in fact an alien and they pair have managed to sneak a lift aboard a Vogon ship - but the Vogons don't take kindly to stowaways and after a particularly painful session of poetry, the pair are jettisoned out into the icy void of space. But it turns out that's just the beginning of their adventure.

Ok, it's important to point that while is certainly is a "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy", it's not the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy". Sure all the characters we expect to feature do - Zaphod Beeblebrox, Trillian, Marvin etc. - but Adams' own script also introduces new creatures, new plot twists and changes quite a few dynamics along the way. And this is probably why we can't be too hard on the film - had another writer come along and played around with Douglas's original material, then there would have been uproar but because Adams himself penned the script before his death in 2001, it's important to take any changes at face value and accept them because they do come straight from the same mind as the original book and radio show.

Visually the movie looks great, especially the scene in which Slartibartfast (Bill Nighy) shows Arthur around his Magrathea workshop, while director Garth Jennings has added his own unique touch to proceedings, even going so far at one highly inspired point as to turn the whole thing into something akin to "Bagpuss". Stephen Fry meanwhile is the perfect choice to voice The Guide - although we could have done with more from him - while Alan Rickman's depressed tones as Marvin are a joy.

But it's fair to say that some fans will still be disappointed, especially as the film struggles to capture the surrealism and madness of Adams' writing style. To paraphrase another sci-fi icon "It's Hitchhiker's Jim, but not as we know it."