MOVIE REVIEW

Thumb's out but not up.

By Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer

There's not much of the blithe spirit in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that made "Star Wars" and even old "Flash Gordon" serials such fun. Amid a stupefying barrage of fantastic images involving all manner of special effects, spectacular production design and amazing creatures, there's a torrent of talk, much of it of an obscure scientific nature and all of it delivered with a parched, insouciant British wit.

There are some inspired off-the-wall moments, but they are more than offset by a pervasive aura of tedium and the lack of any sense of the forward momentum necessary to sustain an adventure of this kind.

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Bringing to the screen the popular iconoclastic space adventure novel by the late Douglas Adams — he died after completing the second draft of the script — would be a massive undertaking, but surely first-time director Garth Jennings and his large cast and crew did not intend for the strain of their efforts to show so clearly.

For all the shape-shifting and zany detailing and constant complications there is a fairly straightforward narrative thread linking all the adventures and episodes. The disappearance of the world's dolphin population signals that the destruction of Earth is imminent. Nebbishy Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman) wakes up to find his farmhouse in England about to be bulldozed for a freeway, but up pops his pal Ford Prefect (Mos Def) to tell him to forget about it.

Confessing that he is actually an alien, he reveals that Earth itself is about to be demolished by the Vogons of the planet Vogsphere, and Arthur had better hurry off with him to hitch a ride on a Vogon spacecraft if he is not to be blown up with the planet to make way for a space expressway. The two escape only to have to plead for their lives with the commander of the Vogon Constructor Fleet (voice of Richard Griffiths), a gigantic rhinoceros-like creature in whom Arthur discerns a poetic soul and a longing for love. This is the first of many tests and narrow escapes.

When they come face to face with the president of the universe, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), Arthur realizes he's the smooth talker who lured saucy Trillian (Zooey Deschanel) away from him, as he hesitated to rush off with her to Madagascar — instead she rushed off into space with Zaphod.

The movie is not without its pointed observations. The sexy but dim Zaphod, who at times is literally two-faced, speaks with a twang and admits he absentmindedly signed off on the destruction of Earth ("I haven't much time to read") and knocks back a supercharged cocktail, explaining that being president requires only half a brain.

The brightest presence is the always fresh Deschanel, who has a light touch otherwise absent. Bill Nighy shows up late but most welcome as a wistful planet architect (his contribution to Earth was the design of Norway); John Malkovich plays a shrewd, half-bodied spiritual leader with Richard Simmons curls; and Helen Mirren supplies the voice for Deep Thought.

'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'

MPAA rating: PG for thematic elements, action and mild language

Times guidelines: Suitable family fare

A Buena Vista release of a Touchstone Pictures and Spyglass Entertainment presentation. Director Garth Jennings. Producers Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum, Nick Goldsmith, Jay Roach, Jonathan Glickman. Screenplay by Douglas Adams and Karey Kirkpatrick; based on the book by Adams. Cinematographer Igor Jadue-Lillo. Editor Niven Howe. Music Joby Talbot. Creature effects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Costumes Sammy Sheldon. Production designer Joel Collins. Supervising art director Frank Walsh. Set decorator Kate Beckly. Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes. In general release.