Comment Re:The film sucked; the miniseries before it was g (Score 2) 39
My first exposure to HHTG was around 1980. It was available on this thing we had back then called "radio", which was kind of like wireless multicast audio streaming, only with a very limited selection of content streams.
Here's the thing: a film is never going to compete with whatever you imagined reading the book or listening to the "radio" plays. At best it can show you what you've already imagined. And when you see what you've imagined it's getting a pleasant hit of external validation. Why else would a Harry Potter fan go to see a Harry Potter movie? They don't go for a *different* experience than they imagined. And Harry Potter and HHTG are written in two very different narrative styles. I think most people who read Harry Potter picture more or less the same thing, but everyone who reads HHTG picture very different things. So the movie was bound to be a disappointment if you went to it expecting to see what you've pictured in your mind up on the screen.
On top of that the "radio" play is 13 hours long, and the books have even more material. The movie runs less than two. That means a lot of your favorite bits inevitably got left out.