10 Highly Questionable Actions Committed By George Lucas
9. Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck sprung to life as a character introduced through Marvel comics in the 1970s and was known for his stories which operated as biting satire and subversive commentary on how we live life. It has been described as an existential character that gives a different point of view to everyday things, bringing them to the forefront by joking about them. Leave it up to George Lucas to completely miss this point when doing a movie adaptation of this comic series.
George Lucas stepped down as president of Lucasfilm in order to focus all of his energy on producing films with Howard the Duck being one of the first after this decision. Although several other producers wanted Howard the Duck to be an animated film, George Lucas ultimately suggested shooting it in live action so that Industrial Light and Magic could do the special effects for it (and partially because of contract stipulations). This is unfortunate because it would have worked waaaay better with animation; instead, we get a highly unconvincing duck suit with over-dubbed dialogue that hardly ever matches up with Howards mouth.
This was just the tip of the iceberg though as Howard the Duck suffers under pretty much every category. The script is terrible, filled with unfunny humor and completely neglecting the distinctive elements that made Howard the Duck such a great comic series. The acting is cheesy and uninspired and the tone is all over the place- thanks to a director who had no idea what to do with this material. Howard the Duck was a huge bomb for George and friends to the point that just about everyone who worked on the picture tried their best to distance themselves from it. Everyone, of course, except for George, who thought the film was harshly judged and would be seen as a great film over time.