Wait for ”Hitchhiker”s Guide” on video

Under the heading for Earth in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy it reads, “Mostly Harmless.” The description for the film of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” should read, “Mostly Dull.”

Whatever possessed the Disney Company, director Garth Jennings and co-writer Karey Kirkpatrick (“Chicken Run”) to turn what was an extremely popular series that combined science fiction with Monty Python humor (creator Douglas Adams was a former writer for the Pythons) into a romantic comedy is beyond me.

The film stars Martin Freeman (of the BBC sitcom “The Office”) as Arthur Dent, a confused, middle-class Brit who is rescued from Earth’s destruction by his friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) who, unbeknownst to Arthur, is in reality an alien researcher for The Guide.

The pair stumble from situation to situation until they meet up with Galactic President Zaphod Beeblebrox (Sam Rockwell), Marvin the Depressed Robot (voiced by Alan Rickman) and Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), the last Earthwoman alive and Arthur’s soul mate. The quintet then go on a quest to find the apocryphal planet of Magrathea to snag a powerful weapon and discover the Great Question, whose Great Answer is “42.”

First, the Good: The art direction is fabulous. This movie looks darned good. The acting for the most part is great, except for Sam Rockwell’s pathetic impression of President Bush and Mos Def’s unconvincing portrayal of Ford. There are also a couple wonderful cameos (which I won’t spoil) and a funny opening song involving dolphins.

The Bad? Pretty much everything else.

The ultimate failure of the filmmakers is that they forgot (or never realized) what it was about the book that made it so popular. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” isn’t so much a great story or fantastically brilliant novel. What the book is, is a series of clever plays on language and funny insights into life, the universe and everything. What we remember from the book are lines like the one where it describes the Vogon ships as “hovering in the air in exactly the same way bricks don’t.”

That’s where the filmmakers got it wrong. They forgot that “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” is about language and ideas. Once they stripped the film of most of the great lines and musings from the book in favor of making another bland, Hollywood romantic comedy, the heart, soul and wit of Douglas Adams was lost.

GRADE: C