YMMV / The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

• And You Thought It Would Fail: When it was first announced that Mos Def would play Ford Prefect, there was a lot of complaints towards the fact that he was black while the character was traditionally white. However, most of them subsided by the time the film came out.
• Awesome Music:
  • "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish..."
  • "Finale".
• Can't Un-Hear It: For some, Sam Rockwell's American accent as Zaphod Beeblebrox, Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast, Alan Rickman as Marvin and Stephen Fry as the Guide.
• Crosses the Line Twice: "So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish..." sings deeply about the failure of mankind to prevent or escape the destruction of the Earth, all sung in the most cheerful of tunes.
• Death of the Author: Many people who are critical of the Romantic Plot Tumor are surprised to find that it was in Douglas Adams' pre-mortem draft of the script and that he is not, in fact, rolling in his grave over it. Upon a little more thought, most of them conclude that that doesn't make it any better.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Marvin, due to the wonderfully deadpan way Alan Rickman does the voice.
  • Slartibartfast, thanks to Bill Nighy's performance.
  • Also the Vogons, generally agreed upon to be among the highlights of the movie.
• Epileptic Trees: The Vogon Slapsticks introduced in this film could explain the nature of the Vogon's uncreative and dry lifestyles, given they have to share the planet with creatures that will slap anyone thinking of an idea, ending in the Vogons having to evolve to live without creativity.
• Genius Bonus:
  • That's an actual Ford Prefect that Ford tries to shake hands with.
  • Unlike other adaptations which show Arthur suffering when the Vogon poetry is read to him, it makes sense that he's unaffected by it given how the Guide states that human poetry (more specifically, the poetry of Paula Nancy Millstone Jennings of Sussex) is considered the absolute worst in the universe, thus the Vogon poetry (the third worst) must be mild to a human in comparison.
  • For British viewers with relevant experience, the fact the Vogons run the unemployment benefit bureaucracy is a genius bonus in itself. One of the despondent claimants in a long slow-moving queue is a robot... who turns out to be the original Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981).
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The team appearing as knitted figures before achieving normality, seeing as Stephen Fry is the guide to both universes...
  • Crabs with SHINY jeweled shells, you say?
• Informed Wrongness: Moments after meeting, Tricia suggests Arthur go on a trip with her to Madagascar. The film tries to portray Arthur as a stick-in-the-mud for turning her down, but Tricia seriously suggests he quit his job for it, and instead comes off as completely unreasonable.
• Mis-blamed: Many things the fans complained about were Adams' intention from when he first outlined this adaptation - fans should remember that he tried to work in new bits into every new Hitchhiker's adaptation - and much of the script was written by him.
• Older Than They Think: Some people think that the movie ripped off the name "Babel Fish" from the now-defunct translation website, completely forgetting of course, that it is in fact the other way around considering the source material. The name itself, meanwhile, is in turn based on the biblical story of the "Tower of Babel".
• One-Scene Wonder: Humma Kavula. Whether you approve of his addition to the story or not, there's no denying that John Malkovich (with the help of the special effects team) makes him a memorable character.
• Questionable Casting: Mos Def as Ford Prefect, which is kind of the joke: Ford Prefect's half-arsed attempts to blend in and the total failure of British humanity to notice anything incongruous about him has always been a part of Ford's story (just look at his name) and one the movie merely played up a bit more.
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Douglas Adams added one between Arthur and Trillian in order to increase studio & audience acceptance of the movie, unlike previous entries in the franchise where Arthur has a brief interest in her. The movie version features an Arthur who is desperately pining over Trillian, who could have been his one true love had he not been afraid to pursue her, and he spends most of the movie time thinking about, worrying about or focusing on her.
• So OK, It's Mostly Harmless: While fans of the source material find the movie highly divisive, to the point of some people not accepting Adams himself being behind most changes as an excuse, the movie on its own merits can be seen as an enjoyable Surreal Humor romp that feels like a mix between Futurama and Monty Python, and at least it has made those that weren't exposed to the previous adaptations (which haven't been distributed worldwide) interested in the books.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The way Zaphod's head was dealt with, Arthur & Trillian's romantic arc, and various other changes from the books.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Being made in 2005, the filmmakers didn't over-rely on CGI and built a lot of real sets and used Practical Effects, the stand out being the Vogons designed by the Jim Henson's Creature Shop.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Trillian, whose Manic Pixie Dream Girl tendencies early on in the film are clearly meant to seem charming, but really makes her come across as unreasonable, flighty, self-centrered and completely without empathy. As mentioned in the Informed Wrongness section above, being miffed that a man she just met at a party is reluctant to quit his job to go to Madagascar with her on a whim doesn't exactly paint her as reasonable or understanding — even worse, later on in the movie she claims that the Point of View Gun won't have any effect on her because she is "already a woman." Gender essentialism aside, Trillian has very blatantly not considered anyone else's point of view in the movie at all, yet the line sounds like it's meant to be taken sincerely instead of being played for Hypocritical Humor.
• Woolseyism: In order to get the same significance for them as Stephen Fry had towards the Anglosphere, the Spanish dub of the film had the Guide voiced by José María del Río, who was the official voice for Carl Sagan in Cosmos, as well as many other science shows and documentaries in Spain.

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