Howard the Duck Film Review
Marvel's Feathered Hero Didn't Kick Tail in the Box Office
During the 1980s, Star Wars guru George Lucas and director Willard Huyck worked on an adaptation of Marvel's Howard the Duck. Already a TV series, not well-known, but a cult-favorite, developers wanted to bring the franchise to a wider audience by transforming it into motion picture form.
Because it was live action and critics weren't convinced with the lackluster physical appearance of Howard, the movie was a commercial and critical failure, not even being released on DVD until twenty-three years after its theatrical debut.
Starring Jeffrey Jones and Lea Thompson, Howard the Duck opens with a scene of the title character relaxing in his home on Duckworld, a technologically-advanced world similar to Earth, only with ducks instead of humans.
As Howard sits to enjoy a pleasurable magazine, his whole house begins to shake before he's sucked out and zapped halfway across the galaxy. Eventually, he lands in Cleveland where he meets some new friends along the way, such as Beverly (Lea Thompson), a struggling rockstar.
This absurd plot makes absolutely no sense and it never really takes off. Then again, this is a movie about a talking duck, so perhaps viewers shouldn't expect too much in the storyline department.
Howard the Duck is Delightfully Stupid to Some, Boring and Nonsensical to Others
It's rather shocking, but this movie really does do some things right, although scarcely. Camera work is smooth and focuses on the characters. There are no glaring issues like bad angles or poor lighting, so while not the greatest work in the world, it's still passable.
The duck costumes, while not great, are certainly not as bad as critics made them out to be. The eyes are somewhat expressive and seem to work as well as the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles suits.
Although not even close to Oscar-winning material, the actor who pulls the best performance is Jeffrey Jones as the Dark Overlord. His raspy, snake-like voice could actually work for a cartoon villain.
The stop-motion Dark Overlord monster is well-designed and definitely looked unsettling for its time. Watching it growl, howl and screech is somewhat of a treat, especially when its slimy tentacles reach out to snatch helpless victims and shove them down a hideous mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Lea Thompson also has a decent singing voice that won't damage the ear drums. Not to mention it's nearly possible to actually feel sorry for Howard when he's nearly left in the rain in the beginning. The way he stands there and looks away is almost saddening. ALMOST.
Howard the Duck Has an Incredible Amount of Problems
Where there are a few minor positive aspects about Howard, they do not even come close to overcoming its atrocities. The worst part about the film is the cheesy script chocked full of annoying puns.
One or two can be mildly amusing in a "ha ha, very funny" sort of way, but the writers thought it would be cute to use them throughout the entirity of the film, apparently.
Real winners like "quack-fu", "no more Mr. Nice Duck" and "it's a bird, it's a plane, it's a duck" will be heard often.
Instead of being cute and amusing, they just come across as trying too hard to be funny in the kind of way that says: "haha, let's use a duck pun...to let the moviegoers know that it's funny because he's a duck! Har har!" Campy, silly movies can be fun every now and then, but this one just takes it to the extreme.
The acting is pretty poor, overdone and wooden, too, but the actors really shouldn't be blamed for it. With a ridiculous script like Howard's, it would be difficult for anyone to deliver solid lines. After all, Tim Robbins is usually a solid actor in other films, such as The Shawshank Redemption.
Viewers have got to love the cheesy Kenny G-like music in the opening scene. It certainly fits the calm mood, but it's just horrific and corny.
Speaking of the storyline, Howard doesn't even have a purpose for coming to Earth until the very end when he makes a completely out-of-the-blue claim that maybe he was sent there to save the planet.
The driving and flying scenes toward the end of the movie are too lengthy. Simple editing down to focus more on the final fight would have solved this issue, but, of course, this was ignored.
Howard has laughably bad special effects, even for 1986. After watching Star Wars recently, it's quite obvious that even it looks better than this, and it came out nearly ten years earlier. The worst part has to be when lasers shoot out of the Dark Overloard's eyes mainly because of the cartoon-looking sparks from the electricity bolts.
There are many disturbing things in this movie that kids shouldn't see. The naked female duck taking a bath is sure to give viewers either big laughs or visual nightmares, considering she has humanistic parts...breasts and all.
Viewers won't know what to make out of the interspecies romantic relationship between Howard and Beverly. There's one scene where she is in skimpy underwear and she begins to get sensual with Howard in her bed.
There's nothing past kissing, but it's still just really out there. Perhaps it was done for laughs, but it was difficult to find any humor in it because it was just completely senseless.
Movie Fans Will Either Love or Hate This Film
Overall, Howard the Duck is simply a disaster and, unless viewers are enamored with campy bad flicks, it should be avoided at all costs.
Fans of the Marvel series should just stick to the comics, but even more important, so should the entire franchise.
This viewer is all for '80s cheese, but this one just doesn't make the cut in the end. Thankfully, Tim Robbins's and Lea Thompson's careers weren't totally destroyed by this asinine mess of a film.
- Howard the Duck
- Starring Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones and Tim Robbins
- Written by Steve Gerber, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz
- Directed by Willard Huyck
- Running time: 110 min
Rating: 1/5
Not Recommended Unless Campy Films Seem Appealing
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