Speaking of the Howard the Duck movie…
I saw Howard the Duck on opening night with my pal Matt…the theatre we were at had a kiosk of HTD t-shirts for sale in the lobby (and perhaps other merchandise as well…it’s been a while, and I don’t recall, and I only remember the t-shirt because, well, I’m not saying I bought one….).
I figured it was a bad sign when I noticed that my pal Matt and I comprised about 1/4 of the audience in attendance at that particular showing. I left the theatre thinking, somewhat surprisingly I suppose, that it wasn’t all bad. The first half of the film, with Howard adjusting to this new world and developing his friendship with Beverly, wasn’t terrible. There was the very occasional flash of a slip of a shadow of a wisp of the comics version of Howard, at least, though that disappeared entirely in the film’s “chase scene/exploding things” second half.
Upon watching the film again, I was most taken with the number of scenes that left me wondering how the actors were willing to put up with the dialogue they were given (other than “the check cleared” and “I’m working on a George Lucas movie!”)
The only real tragedy of this film is that it’s now an uphill battle to convince people the original comics were actually very good. It’s been less of a battle lately, judging by the extremely positive response to Marvel’s Essential Howard the Duck reprint volume, but still, I bet we have quite a while to go before the Howard comics shake the ghost of the Howard movie.
Additional linkage:
Space.com: “Howard the Duck, Really That Fowl?”
The Howard the Duck movie poster.
I must have this soundtrack.
Get your copy of the novelization starting at only $0.01! The novelization isn’t that bad, as I recall…better than the movie, anyway.
Every single one of these HTD DVDs is a bootleg. But what I wouldn’t give for an official release, with the original trailer (sort of a “behind the scenes”-type preview, with actors talking about what is was like working with Howard).
The Badmovieplanet.com review. (Why did the police arrest Phil?)
“Lucas Working on Howard the Duck Begins.” Oh, if only it were true…but if you were to go to this Digital Bits archive page and look under 3/11/04, you would find a zipped sound file of George Lucas semi-joking with Robin Williams about a Howard the Duck: Special Edition!
Some enterprising individual has put together a video game based on the film.
And never forget: Steve Gerber – the one, true creator of Howard the Duck.
