There are so many titles to give a possible review of Howard the Duck. The most appropriate one would be, History Repeats Itself, Again.
Once again Hollywood takes an esoteric cult classic, rips the heart out of it, disregards the core character and the elements that made it endearing, and pumps 20 mil of special effects in like embalming fluid, thinking this will ensure success. And once again, scratches its head when it bombs. What I don't understand is, where do they get the money to keep doing this, and how can I get a job making $300,000 a year to be a Hollywood Producer/Idiot?
For those unfamiliar with the character, Howard the Duck was a very unlikely everyman character that struck a chord with 80's readers of Marvel comics. Howard the Duck was an antihero in every sense; he was small, frightened, alienated, isolated, at times mean, with a unique perspective on the world of humans he referred to as "you hairless apes". Who could not relate to him? Stever Gerber wrote him as a rough cynical character, commenting not only on human failings but of the failings of Marvel Comics itself, making the character almost existential. His stories made fun of themselves and everyone about them, including the reader. However, underneath it all Howard the Duck was struggling to maintain his humanity (or his version of it), while trapped in a world he couldn't escape from. In this sense the stories were in fact less cynical than the mindless slasher/gore comics that came after. The comic books became instant collector's items, and if Sartre were alive, he would have every one of them.
Then George Lucas came along...
I really don't know what Lucas was trying to achieve. Did he really have an affection for this character and tried to realize a faithful movie version of Howard? Whatever his motivation, Lucas has become the heavy in many fan's eyes in the complete destruction of this character. The * original * comics now sale for a dollar each.
What went wrong?
Any comic reader can answer that. But as has always been, and always will be, comics readers (and writers) were not consulted and will never be consulted when their favorite book is optioned by producers who think comics are pictures to look at, with the screenplay written by writers who could not write a comic book if their lives depended on it.
First, they took a darkly cynical character and decided to make him nice. Why did they do this? "Because the audience might not like him!" I can hear the team of producers in the boardroom now. It's the same as taking Danny Devito's character in "Taxi" and making him nice so the audience won't dislike him. Without Howard's cynicism and crassness, the entire core of the character disappears. His ability to comment on our world disappears. He has become politically correct. A politically correct Howard the Duck obviates his existence; it is like describing a "solid vacuum".
Even his voice was softened to an irritating milquetoast sweetness. In the comics, he was growling, threatening, yelling, even making strange ducklike "Waaauughh!" sounds in exasperation when words failed him.
Second, they expected a mass audience to understand and accept a character that had a fan base, at most, of a few million people. This is the same mistake Hollywood makes with all cult figures; they are a cult figure because they * aren't * a "mass appeal" figure! Will Hollywood ever understand this? Do I need to ask?
The closest thing I can compare this mistake to is the twice-repeated mistake they made with movies based on Hunter S. Thompson. They made two movies that both bombed about a dislikable character the minority of people have heard of, and expected the audience to understand him and his antics without explanation.
Third, they hired a writer without an understanding of comic books. Why there seems to be an unwritten law in Hollywood against using writers with experience in comics to write screenplays, I have no idea.
Four, the plot. Howard's most appealing adventures occurred in the midst of real-life greed, paranoia, and inhumanity of man to man. The "Dark Overlord" bit occurred (I believe) after Gerber left the series and it went into a black and white format with writers desperate to keep an audience, and they introduced these elements which lost me and many others as readers. * This * is what they decided to use as the basis of the script. Rather like taking the final episodes of Star Trek in the third (and worst) season and making a big-budget movie based on them. The concept of a talking alien duck is strange enough. A "Dark Overlord" threatening the universe is a movie in itself, but here is a distraction from the Howard character, and becomes a vague nuisance (and an expensive one) that is never explained to the audience, and even if it were, is not presented in a meaningful way the audience would care about.
This was a very expensive movie. If they had locked Steve Gerber, the creator of Howard, in a room for a week with a pencil and a six-pack of beer, his script would have been infinitely better than this embarrassing drek. Even simpler than that, they could have removed
*all* of the special effects, except Howard, and done a movie based on one of his early comic books, with his personality intact, and it could have been a cult movie. But a mass movie success? Never. And that is why it fails on both levels, because they insist on it being both.
If a Hollywood producer preparing to make another movie based on a comic book reads this, do you think he will learn anything? Silly me. Hollywood producers would never read anything on IMDB.
If anyone alive at this time is interested in understanding why Howard the Duck was once appealing to so many readers, read the original books by Steve Gerber. They hold up even better as commentary on today's wacked society than they did when they were written. (And believe me, now you can get them Cheap. )
However, I doubt many people even remember the movie, much less care about a defunct cult comics character.
As Howard would say (with a duck accent), "Waaauuughhh!"
Three stars, not that it matters.
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