Marvel’s Most Hated Movie Is Better Than The Current MCU

By Jennifer Asencio
| Published 12 seconds ago

The 1986 Lucasfilm movie Howard the Duck was never going to win any awards. Right from the beginning, everyone recognized how cheesy it was. Few people, aside from true comic book nerds, knew Howard had anything to do with the Marvel universe. Coming from the studio that brought us the original Star Wars trilogy and featuring Lea Thompson fresh from her first turn as Lorraine Baines-McFly, the movie just seemed like it was out of left field.

An Insane Plot And Production

Howard is a very ordinary duck, enjoying his life in Marshington, DC, when suddenly a portal opens and drags him right from his living room and into the very Earthling city of Cleveland. There, he meets Beverly, herself an aspiring musician. She takes him in and introduces him to Phil, a groupie for her band who also happens to work in the lab at the local museum. Howard is hoping Phil can help get him home, but in the meantime, he looks for a job and helps Beverly by managing her band.

Phil gets help in the form of Dr. Walter Jennings, whose laser experiment is what dragged Howard to Earth, but it also brought along “someone else”: an interdimensional monster so ugly and dangerous that it could single-handedly destroy the planet. It doesn’t want to do that until it can invite a few friends along using Jennings’ laser, and Howard and his new friends are all that stands between the Earth and certain destruction.

So Ahead Of Its Time, We’re Just Now Catching Up With It

Let’s face it: Howard the Duck is not a good movie, and it never was. But between oversaturation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it is today and the ensemble cast that somehow carried this very 80s comic adventure, the movie is a lot more fun today than it was when it first came out. It was ahead of its time as a lampoon of the Marvel universe, well before the Avengers ever assembled onscreen. Howard is actually part of the Guardians of the Galaxy continuity, which makes sense given that they have a talking raccoon and a sentient tree.

The amazing cast is led by Thompson, Tim Robbins as Phil, and Jeffrey Jones as Dr. Jennings, with a team of puppeteers moving Howard around, while he is voiced by Chip Zien. Notable cameos include Holly Robinson as one of Beverly’s bandmates; police procedural star Paul Guilfoyle as, unsurprisingly, a cop; and comic actor David Paymer as Jennings’ lab assistant. Jorli McLain, an obscure actress who looks a lot like Tracy Gold of Growing Pains, steals her scene as a waitress in a restaurant called Cajun Sushi.

Jones is especially good, which is a little uncomfortable when you know his off-screen crimes, but the actor was excellent at his craft, as evidenced by a range of other roles as disparate as Beetlejuice, The Hunt for Red October, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Valmont. As Dr. Jennings, he plays it deadpan, as though a walking, talking duck is normal in his world. As his alter ego, his delivery of lines and comic timing make it obvious why he was allowed to continue acting after he served his time. He is the best part of an over-the-top and chaotic movie, setting up its zany heroes with hilarious precision.

Tim Robbins is known for being a very pedantic actor, memorizing his every line and movement. He is also not known for this kind of comedy, so his appearance is a pleasant surprise from an actor who is usually found in more witty films like The Hudsucker Proxy and Bull Durham. Yet he plays his character with the same zeal as a 1930s screwball actor, including trips, falls, and numerous physical stunts played for the laugh.

A Certified Cult Classic

Lea Thompson bears the brunt of the film, though, having to appear in the most scenes with the puppet that represents Howard. Playing against an inanimate object, she pulls out all the stops and leans into the outrageous plot, from the seedy club to her studio apartment, the all-night sushi place, and the mad scientists’ lab. It’s not one of her best performances, but it is worthy of an actress who had to play opposite an anthropomorphic waterfowl, especially when she is skirting the fine line of the romance that never quite happens between them.

The movie is still a cult classic, despite being objectively terrible, and a large part of that goes to both the cast and the puppetry. Howard always looks like a puppet, but we can overlook that because all the rest of the special effects are deliberately worse. The movie is based on a campy comic book and manages to capture that tone with its framing and imagery, never attempting to be more than it is. This is not the quality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that’s okay, because it was never trying to be that kind of blockbuster. Maybe if the MCU followed the Duck’s lead and leaned more into campiness and less into attempted gritty backstories, it wouldn’t be as tiresome as it is now.

Unfortunately, to watch Howard the Duck, you’ll have to rent it through Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, or Fandango at Home. It’s not quite a family movie with its flash of duck boobies and hinted romance between Beverly and Howard, but with all that in perspective, it’s still worth the rental for a nice cheesy popcorn night. Clocking in at just under two hours, it’s also more endurable than an MCU slog.