Though I knew of its infamy, I'd never actually sat down and watched "Howard The Duck" before, so noticing that it's currently available on Sky Movies, and with a spare evening, I thought now was the opportune time.

Howard (Jordan Prentice & Chip Zien (primarily)) from a planet where the duck, rather than monkey, was the dominate species, is transported across the Galaxy, to Earth, where, despite his appearance he connects with Beverly (Lea Thompson) a struggling rock singer. Their attempts to find a way for Howard to return to his own planet are assisted by Beverly's friend Phil (Tim Robbins), who brings in Dr. Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) but their research only results is something much worse being brought to Earth.

So, no. It's not good. Not good at all. Particularly for the first half. Tonally it's all over the place, with duck playboy magazine and the visit to the brothel feeling at odds with the PG Certificate. The plot takes an age to get going and the set pieces are dull or incomprehensible. The acting is terrible, from some pretty big names too - what is Tim Robbins doing? It's also not helped that time hasn't been kind to the very 80's sensibilities, from the awful band, to the massive hair, to the outfits that everyone wears to the weird Rock club, to the generic 80's street thugs.

But is its reputation as one of the worst films of all time actually warranted? Not really, of course it was a financial failure and essentially ended up costing Lucas Pixar, but those consequences shouldn't really be considered when appraising the movie. Does "The Shawshank Redemptions" initial financial failure affect people's opinions of that film? The second half of the movie is alright, when the plot finally starts. I actually quite like the effects for the evil overlords race, I'm a bit of a sucker for stop motion animation.

Whilst never approaching a level you would describe as "good" the film is, never the less, rather unfairly grouped in during the "worst of all time" conversations and Howard himself is overdue his full MCU reboot.

Howard the Duck comes from an alien planet Duckworld. He's a cigar-smoking non-swimmer. One night, he gets pulled from his world and lands in an alley in Cleveland. He rescues rock singer Beverly Switzler (Lea Thompson) from two thugs. Beverly brings Howard to her scientist friend Phil Blumbertt (Tim Robbins). Dr. Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) recognizes Howard's feather which floated down after his laser experiment exploded. The laser had brought him from his world. As they try to reactivate the laser, it explodes again. This time Dr. Jenning gets possessed by one of the Dark Overlords of the Universe from the Nexus of Sominus.

First of all, Howard the Duck looks weird. He's not nearly as cuddly as he needs to be. He's stiff and a bit ugly. This suggests a perfect movie to remake with a CGI character. There are tons of duck puns. This will either annoy you or you could have a bit of fun. The writing is not good but I still had some fun with it. I actually like Tim Robbins' wackiness. The inter-species love affair is awkward although Lea Thompson is looking very hot. There is a general problem with this movie. It's definitely not aimed at kids and yet it was rated PG. I don't think it could be aimed at adults either. Even the thugs look cheesy. It makes this very odd in tone.

The movie seems to be slightly long. It's been a long time since I saw this movie. I had forgotten about the Cajun Sushi diner. That section has lots of problems. The fight scene is silly. Jeffrey Jones looks crazy and yet nobody else seems to notice. The mob trying to cook Howard is really off-putting. I would rather cut most of this section out. This movie has some fun moments. One little scene has both the possible charming fun but also the awkward humor. With Beverly looking through Howard's wallet, she finds some fun duck-puns. Then she finds an ugly looking duck condom. Like the duck boobies, the humor is pushed too far at the wrong time. However, not everybody is put off by duck boobies.

George Lucas went to USC with Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, who later co-wrote American Graffiti with the Star Wars director. Readers of this site wil recognize the two more for Messiah of Evil, a classic of 1970's horror that is sadly underappreciated.

After finishing American Grafitti, Lucas told Huyck and Katz about Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck comic book. It took until 1984 to start the process rolling, however.

The film was optioned by Universal Studios after a partnership with Marvel Comics. Universal was excited, as they'd passed on previous Lucas projects and lost out on some major profits. Huyck and Katz felt that the film should be animated, but because Universal needed a summer blockbuster, Lucas suggested that ILM could create a live action movie.

The hard part of the whole movie is that in the comics, Howard is abrasive and rude. That's not the way a main character should be in a Hollywood movie. The storyline is also straightforward while every adventure of Howard had a major streak of surrealism. After all, he was "trapped in a world he never made."

Gerber often referred to his writing of the comic book as an existential joke: "This is no joke! There it is. The cosmic giggle. The funniest gag in the universe. That life's most serious moments and most incredibly dumb moments are often distinguishable only by a momentary point of view. Anyone who doesn't believe this probably cannot enjoy reading Howard the Duck."

That said, he helped with the script, was there on the shoot and felt that the movie was true to the spirit of Howard and Beverly.



Howard the Duck - played by Ed Gale, but also voiced by Chip Zien and acted by numerous pupeteers - is pulled from Duckworld to Cleveland, Ohio, where he meets Beverly (Lea Thompson), who will become his one true love.

Soon, the duck comes into conflict with the Dark Overlord of the Universe, a villain beyond the wall of sleep that possesses Dr. Walter Jenning (Jeffrey Jones) and menaces all reality. There's also a subplot about Beverly's band Cherry Bomb, which features Katey Sagal's twin sister Liz, Dominique Davalos from the band Dominatrix and Holly Robinson from 21 Jump Street.

Paula Abdul, Kim Basinger, Belinda Carlisle, Jodi Benson, Tori Amos, Sarah Jessica Parker and Lori Singer all tried out for the role of Beverly, but Thompson does a great job. She even sang all of the songs in the film.

The film was considered a box-office bomb , as it made only a million more than its overall production budget. Universal production heads Frank Price and Sidney Sheinberg supposedly got in a fistfight over the results, with Price eventually leaving the studio. Seriously, movies have flopped much harder than this, so I've never understood the stink that is on this movie. Perhaps - before the prequels - people expected more out of Lucas.

Huyck never directed again - he had also made the Eddie Murphy movie Best Defense - but he did write Radioland Murders with Lucas and Katz.

I loved that Howard showed up at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy. It felt like Marvel's first theatrical star finally got his moment, after being considered a failure for so long.

A postscript: Lucas had just built Skywalker Ranch complex and was counting on Howard the Duck to pay it off. He had to sell off assets to stay in business.Steve Jobs offered to help by buying Lucasfilm's newly-launched CGI animation division for a better than market price. It turns out that he got a great deal, because that division is what we now know as Pixar.