Howard The Duck is an interesting film to review. It's a big budget special effects spectacle, and yet there's plenty wrong with it. It is, to put it straight, odd. First of all, there's the twenty-seven-year-old duck Howard (voiced by Chip Zien). He's just like a normal person, except that he's a duck from Duckworld. He doesn't have any superpowers, but he does know quack-fu. The filmmakers made him look appealing, even cute at times, but his range of expressions isn't great because he's brought to life mostly by an animatronic suit. Still, I think that, for their time, the special effects (animatronic suits, costumes and puppets) look good and work well. I didn't have a problem with taking the duck seriously. The only problem with Howard, in my opinion, is that he's not a very likable protagonist. The Howard in the comic book is rude and obnoxious. The Howard in the film is sarcastic. Maybe the problem lies in his personality. Maybe the problem lies in the situations that he gets into. The film was supposed to appeal to children, as well as adults, but some of its dirty humor is not suitable for children. Howard gets beamed from Duckworld to Earth at the very beginning of the film. While this is happening, we're shown impressive views of space, planets and stars, which wouldn't look out of place in Star Trek. But, when Howard ends up on Earth, he has one problem after another, and his situation is a bit depressing because he's like a lost pet or a down-on-his-luck person. This is certainly not Back To The Future (1985). There are problems with the cast as well. The actors don't deliver bad performances, but, because the film is a comedy about a talking duck, their performances are sometimes strange. Firstly, there's Lea Thompson (playing Beverly Switzler), the beauty whose role in Howard The Duck was her biggest one yet. She was cast because of her appearance in Back To The Future. Her performance in Howard The Duck is definitely not one of her best. In some of her interviews, she talked about how unpleasant it was for her during filming. She's good at times, she looks nice, but, with the direction of Willard Huyck, she's often bland. Still, her involvement in the film made it better because she's a good screen presence. Tim Robbins plays Phil Blumburtt, a janitor who pretends to be a scientist. His performance is wacky. One can say that it's bad, but, in my opinion, it suits the film. Jeffrey Jones plays Walter Jenning, a good scientist whose transformation is memorable, yet strange, to say the least. It's also a bit scary, and what is with that voice? Another one of the film's problems is the direction by Huyck. Sure, the film seems coherent. It's not hard to follow the plot. But scenes seem to just happen, often without purpose, and some of them drag on for too long. Anyway, I can go on and on about what's wrong with Howard The Duck. Hardly anything about it seems right. Just about everything seems odd. It has a boring middle section. Did I mention the romance between Howard and Beverly? So, why do I, like many other people, like it? Well, it's because it's a film from the 1980s. It has that 1980s charm, those 1980s special effects, a good rock soundtrack, and it has Lea Thompson. It's a ridiculous, sometimes poorly-made film, but, so much money and effort was spent on it, that it's just interesting to watch and be marvelled by it. I definitely recommend it.
Review of Howard the Duck
