Howard the Duck – Review

Marvel’s first big screen live action adventure debuted in 1986 and featured… Howard the Duck. Interesting choice. Incepted as animation then turned to live-action during production due to contractual shenanigans, the film got clobbered by critics and I doubt was liked much by movie goers, but I am not an expert. Watching it now for the first time, I can say it’s one to skip, even for a Marvel completionist.

As Howard the Duck gets home to his apartment, he feeds his fish, checks his messages, grabs a beer, turns on the TV and smokes a cigar. Soon, however, the walls rumble, is it a duckquake?! Maybe some creepy duck nudity will answer the question? Oh, no, it won’t? As Howard’s chair takes off into the cosmos, we are certainly unsure as to what is happening.

Good thing we get some unhelpful exposition from a shapeless narrator while Howard files on his journey into a script wormhole of some kind as he winds up in Cleveland. As Satan’s Sluts, the biker gang of course, zips through the city streets, it’s all Howard can do to reconcile with his new plane of existence. Thankfully he meets Beverly Switzler (Thompson), a rock band singer, who helps guide him.

It’s somewhat hard to reconcile with this film and its reason for existence. Good story? Hmmmm, nah. Strong dialogue? Nope. Cast? I mean someone paid Tim Robbins. Humor? Not much floated. Memorable moments? I think there was something with a chair. Well-developed animatronic duck-human creature? Uhhhh yeeesh. Like the eyes alone are kind of hard to look at directly.

Howard the Duck should be watched by curious parties, but honestly, it’s not a great time and goes on way too long. It’s not an utter insult to humanity, but its more bizarre and confounding than most anything else, with most humor missing the mark by miles. The odd mix of juvenile and adult didn’t jive, and elemental tones often clashed throughout the film.