r/movies • u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. • 1d ago
Review Taika Waititi's 'Klara and the Sun' - Review Thread
Rotten Tomatoes: 20% (from 10 reviews) with 3.60 average rating
Metacritic: 27/100 (8 critics)
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David Jenkins, Little White Lies - 1/5:
This potentially rich subject matter is squandered by Waititi who has a juvenile habit of undercutting any hint at profundity with a jolt of silly humour or a comic rug pull.
Clarissay Loughrey, The Independent - 2/5:
The book was about who we fundamentally are, now and tomorrow. The film is about the power of love and friendship. That seems like quite the downgrade.
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian - 1/5:
Taika Waititi detonates an explosion of postmodern quirkiness and ironic dorkiness in this unbearably mannered, unspeakably acted film.
Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph - 1/5:
Ishiguro’s thoughts on the ever-evolving relationship between technology and humanity are tossed away like so much thematic confetti. It’s hard to fathom what Waititi thought he was doing in playing things for laughs.
Kevin Maher, The Times - 1/5:
It’s a hopeless film, slippery and mendacious, full of gross Hallmark sentiment, and has been bettered by a myriad of previous robot companion flicks.
Matt Rodgers, Flickering Myth - 3/5:
Klara and the Sun is simply a lovely little fable of hope about what it means to be human, anchored by a delightful performance from Jenna Ortega that makes it just about worthy of your time.
Ben Gibbons, Screenrant - 5/10:
I'm disappointed to say that Klara and the Sun fails to capture the beauty of a carefully constructed dystopian tale, instead offering up a ham-fisted sci-fi comedy with a hollow message.
Clotilde Chinnici, Loud and Clear - 3/5:
As an adaptation, it suffers from the lack of exploration of its central themes and a considerable struggle in its worldbuilding and set up.
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Director: Taika Waititi
Synopsis: Klara is an artificial intelligence friend who wants nothing more than to find the perfect home. It soon meets Josie, a young woman who has a fraught relationship with her mother. But Klara's innocent wonder and unwavering loyalty soon start to heal the family and bring some light to Josie's complicated world.
Release Date: October 23,, 2026 (theaters)
Runtime: 116 Minutes
Cast:
- Jenna Ortega
- Amy Adams
- Natasha Lyonne
- Steve Buscemi
- Mia Tharia
- Aran Murphy
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u/MolaMolaMania 1d ago
"This potentially rich subject matter is squandered by Waititi who has a juvenile habit of undercutting any hint at profundity with a jolt of silly humour or a comic rug pull."
This has been his downfall in most of his recent films. It's like he's become more unable or unwilling to have dramatic moments breath and resonate, and most of all, be respected by the characters and the audience.
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u/Milly-the-Kid 23h ago
Taika Waititi relied heavily on his wife Chelsea Winstanley to edit his films and Jermaine Clement to balance out his sense of humour a bit. Left to his own devices he is a much worse filmmaker.
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u/MolaMolaMania 22h ago edited 13h ago
Ex-wife from what I've read here. It's an all too similar scenario in Hollywood. Peter Bogdanovich divorced Polly Platt to marry Cybill Shepard, and his films went down in quality because Polly was a great screenwriter while Cybill was not.
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u/Crittenberger 21h ago
He's not the first director to "coincidentally" go off a cliff at the end of a relationship and he won't be the last. Hope Chelsea one day gets the credit she deserves
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u/PhantomOfTheNopera 1d ago
I miss the Taika who was able to sit in an uncomfortable or sad moment. He knew how to balance poignancy with humour. His old work was funny, yes, but they also had a lot of heart.
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u/doctorhoohoo 22h ago
Agreed. Our Flag Means Death and Jojo Rabbit both had raw, poignant moments that hit harder because of the comedy.
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u/Slowandserious 15h ago
I would say it even showed in Ragnarok which Reddit seems to love (I dont’t)
“He’s a friend from work” etc
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u/whitesock 10h ago
At the time it felt like a fresh take on a so far dour hero. And there were actual moments that were allowed to breathe, like Odins death. But then it turned out this is all Waititi could do and... Yeah
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u/nomadickitten 7h ago
It’s so interesting because he used to be the master of walking that exact line. I can’t help but wonder how much of the previous ‘auteur’ I assumed was Taika was actually his ex wife, Chelsea.
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 1d ago
This has been his downfall in most of his recent films. It's like he's become more unable or unwilling to have dramatic moments breath and resonate, and most of all, be respected by the characters and the audience.
Someone on reddit gave me run in when Next Goal Wins came out, I was hoping he'd bounce back then and they argued he never dropped off and that this movie was a masterpiece. You're comment nailed all the things wrong I've been finding about his work since he entered Hollywood.
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u/prankster999 1d ago
I have such a soft spot for Michael Fassbender and consider him to be absolutely wasted in that film.
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u/0ttoChriek 1d ago
I think it was the Cosmonaut Variety Hour who put out a video that talked about the effect that Joss Whedon has had on modern filmmaking, with his quippy dialogue and undercutting tension with gags.
Whedon knew how to balance it, for the most part, but it's become ubiquitous now and a lot of writers and directors don't seem to have enough reserve about when they use it.
Waiting seems to have learned all the wrong lessons from Whedon's writing.
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u/themanfromdelpoynton 1d ago
Even with Joss Whedon he kind of lost his ability to toe that line, I say that as a big fan of his historic work. I think it's a problem with a lot of those type of filmmakers, once they no longer have their finger on the zeitgeist, these types of character dialogue and knowing nods to the audience no longer hit right. It gives them a short shelf life.
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u/saera-targaryen 18h ago
I think a lot of my favorite movies as of late have been ones that work hard to maintain that fourth wall and the inherent sense of earnestness. The new superman was such a relief after all of the marvel slop.
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u/PunkandCannonballer 1d ago
I noticed that watching Thor Ragnorak. Definitely funny a lot of the time. But any serious moment was shit on by a stupid joke right away. James Gunn does it a bit too much in some of his stuff too. It's like a weird reflex they get after working on superhero projects 😂
It sucks to see because both of them can absolutely nail the brutal emotional moments as long as they also just let them happen. Guardians 3 or JoJo Rabbit had humor but respected the tragic bits enough to leave them the fuck alone.
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u/MolaMolaMania 1d ago
Yeah, the joking by Korg while Surtur destroys Asgard was a massive tonal blunder, and then Waititi doubled down in Love & Thunder and ruined one of the best villains that the MCU has ever had.
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u/PunkandCannonballer 1d ago
It really has started to become and instant hate thing for me. Like it immediately pulls me out of the movie and makes me wonder why the fuck they couldn't just let things breathe. And for what? A stupid as joke that most of the time isn't even really funny.
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u/TussalDimon 1d ago edited 23h ago
James Gunn
IMO, The Guardians 2 was the worst offender at that.
Since then Gunn dialled it back a bit and, more often than not, he lets sincerity and emotions to play out without interruption.
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u/inksmudgedhands 23h ago
Guardians 2 had moments that Gunn allowed to move without a joke cluttering it. Yondu's funeral wasn't played for laughs. Waititi would have wallpapered that scene with jokes because it would have been too sincere for him.
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u/Wazula23 1d ago
Sounds like he learned absolutely nothing from Love and Thunder. Everything needs to be undercut, every scene, every line.
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u/nourez 1d ago
And the book is NOTHING like that. The novel is incredibly subtle and melancholic. I stand by the fact that since I read it, I think that the perfect director to adapt it would've been Spike Jonze.
It's a story that just straight up doesn't work if you don't let the emotional bits have breathing room, just because they're so subtle and quiet. Which, unsurprisingly, seems to be the exact opposite of what Waititi did.
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u/DaylightMaybe 1d ago
Yes! The book feels so ominous throughout. I saw the first trailer for the movie and thought, “oooooh nooooo”
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u/clappedoutclam 21h ago
Ishiguro as an author in general is probably the most unsuitable writer to have his works adapted by Taika Waititi
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 1d ago
I think that the perfect director to adapt it would've been Spike Jonze.
Need more Spike in my life 💔
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u/LABS_Games 13h ago
Man, where's he at? Its been like 13 years since Her (one of my favorite movies ever).
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u/UnsolvedParadox 1d ago
Based on the trailer, his takeaway seems to have been “Be even zanier”.
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u/facelesshero1440 1d ago
quite frustrating to hear since with jojo rabbit, he was able to thread the line between humour and serious subject matter, i believe quite masterfully; similar to his earlier work or even hunt for the wilderpeople. i thought with some of the recent fails, this might’ve been a return to form where he would employ some restraint, tact, and treat the source material seriously. when i closed the final page in klara and the sun, i felt so empty and sad but also weirdly inspired? it looks like taika just said screw that bs, lemme turn them into cartoon characters and make gags or jokes every second scene. probs wont watch now, what a shame.
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u/whichwitch9 1d ago
Yeah. Love and Thunder had a great story under it, but he never let the big emotional beats hit, so it felt awkward with wild tone shifts. That's gonna be death for Klara and the Sun. It's especially bad when the book is fairly well loved
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u/LADYBIRD_HILL 1d ago
“I’m gonna make a movie about a guy who butchers gods as revenge for his family’s death intersected with a woman dying of cancer and it’s gonna be nothing but nonstop jokes the entire time! It’ll be great!”
What happened to the guy who made Jojo Rabbit? Imagine if that scene in Jojo with the shoes was undercut by wacky imaginary Hitler showing up and cracking a joke. Where has his restraint gone?
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u/EnterPlayerTwo 1d ago
He failed on every level when he has a character called the God Butcher and that character doesn't show up on the planet full of gods
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u/7screws 1d ago
Love and Thunder is based on one of the best comicbook story arcs of all time and he totally just shit all over it.
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u/YummyGoochCheese 1d ago
He had Next Goal Wins after that and it bombed too. He's on a cold streak for movies right now
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u/In_My_Own_Image 1d ago
It may be an unpopular opinion, but I think Ragnarok suffers from all of the same problems as L&T, in just about as much abundance. It only gets a pass because it was actually funny, most of the time, and because the first two Thor movies weren't great.
But every major emotional moment in Ragnarok is undercut (Korg making a joke the second all of Asgard is destroyed for example) and there is no proper emotional beats for Thor to really respond to his life being upended. Like, all his best friends are killed, his dad died, he finds out he has a sister who is evil, he finds out his dad lied about Asgard's history and his whole world is destroyed and it is played out less emotionally than when his mom died in Dark World or when he thought Loki died in the first movie.
I think Ragnarok being the success it was, and not being called out for these things, is what poisoned the well with Taika because it told him that's what people wanted and he ran with it.
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u/eternali17 22h ago
It's Thor for people who don't like/know Thor. I can't even blame audiences because Marvel has done an atrocious job actually introducing the character to people and there soooo much there.
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u/snowman92 23h ago
Since it came out I have been saying that Ragnarok is 2 films duct taped together: a Planet Hulk movie that does an excellent job and a Thor Ragnarok movie that is flimsy at best. The two parts do not meld together in any meaningful way other than Thor being on the planet Hulk has been.
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u/Data_Chandler 1d ago
So insufferable. I already hated it with a vengeance in Thor Ragnarok.
Oh, Asgard is destroyed mere seconds ago, Thor's home?! Here, some dumb Korg jokes!!
For those that were annoyed by that as well - and we're in the minority, because Ragnarok is very popular and well liked - do yourself a favor and check out Digimodification's fan edit, called Thor Ragnarok Trimmed Edition. It leaves a lot of humor intact but filters out the slapstick and silliness that makes Thor look like a bumbling idiot.
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u/s_walsh 1d ago
I think Thor Ragnarok worked because a lot of the jokes were actually funny. Love and Thunders jokes just outright sucked
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u/TonyZeSnipa 1d ago
It also worked because having a less serious film while the rest are more similarly toned is a breath of fresh air. Continuing it more can make things lose its flavor.
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u/TurquoiseLuck 1d ago edited 13h ago
Also it landed at the right time. The previous Thor film sucked ass, and the other marvel films at the time were a bit lacklustre. Having what was at the time one of the first properly comedy Marvel films was refreshing
Edit: okay I've had a few people point out that there were some bangers around the same time, which is true. I guess I was thinking more of GotG2. GotG1 was great, and was "the comedy one", but 2 was a letdown. Thor3 kinda filled the "funny space adventure" hole that it left
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u/Data_Chandler 1d ago
That's a correct assessment, but the thing is that while the jokes in Ragnarok were funny in a vacuum, they kind of hinged on Thor being an almost completely different character from how he was portrayed before, and it also - thanks to (among other things) Korg's constant stream of "jokes" - was a complete stylistic break compared to Thor 1, 2 and The Avengers.
But like I said, objectively speaking I can admit that a lot of the humor in Ragnarok was kind of funny, it's just that I wanted nor needed that much and that style of humor in my Thor movies. The first Thor is plenty funny, but it still treats Thor with respect and dignity.
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u/MelancholyEcho 1d ago
Rangnarok was fine to me, except the undercutting Korg line you mention about Asgard. Love & Thunder was a huge misfire.
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u/Queef-Elizabeth 1d ago edited 1d ago
Love and Thunder had one very funny joke imo but the rest were just groan worthy. It was the only time I laughed in the whole movie. It was when Thor was calling for Mjolnir from Jane and the axe slowly floated over around him instead like a jealous girlfriend.
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u/TRAFALGAR_D_Law_ 1d ago
I didn't enjoy Ragnarok as much as the general public. Tbh, I always found Thor really fun as an assemble but his movies are kinda boring. I thought Ragnarok would be more dark I guess because it is Ragnarok. But of the three Thor movies I watched I enjoyed Ragnarok the most. I haven't watched Love and Thunder because I have heard it is Ragnarok humour turned up to 100%.
I stopped watching Marvel movie trailers because the first Avenger trailers spoiled a lot of fights. I just go in blind. So in a way it was my fault for expecting a darker story about Ragnarok.
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u/baberlay 6h ago
Fucking thank you, I've been saying since it released that Ragnarok is genuinely ruined by the amount of jokes and how not a single moment of drama is allowed to breathe
It was the epitome of everything I disliked about the MCU
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u/eljudio42 1d ago edited 1d ago
What does undercut mean in this context? Can you give an example from Thor?
Edit: Instead of responding to all of you with the same answer, thank you all for a clear explanation ❤️
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u/TheKinglnTheN0rth 1d ago
Taika has a bad tendency to put punchlines immediately after emotional moments — Sif dying being immediately undercut by the joke about the battle having ended so she won’t go to Valhalla comes to mind
It’s baffling because he was able to pretty masterfully balance humor and grief in JoJo Rabbit, but seems to shoot himself in the foot at every opportunity otherwise
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u/KaneVel 1d ago
Sif didn't die?
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u/TheKinglnTheN0rth 1d ago
Right, bad phrasing in my part — meant the scene where she appears to be dying as Thor finds her
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u/Dat_Boi_Teo 1d ago
I’m assuming they mean constantly having jarring comedic moments immediately after something very serious happens
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u/Shopworn_Soul 1d ago edited 1d ago
I believe they are referring to Waititi's apparent struggle with letting a serious moment remain serious.
Edit: a word
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u/Harkoncito 1d ago
jumping from scene to scene, not letting the plot to breathe, not even in the emotional moments.
"Asgard exploded? Well, here's a joke"
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u/aagaash2001 1d ago
I'm now 100% convinced that his wife as producer was reining him in from his worst instincts.
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u/Astex92 1d ago
Yeah his earlier movies are great, hunt for wilderpeople and what we do in the shadows especially. It's a massive falloff of quality from him.
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 1d ago edited 1d ago
Hunt for The Wilderpeople is one of my favourite movies from the 2010's, its funny, sad and the characters are so rich.
Ragnarok was good, it colourful, funny and the action is good. I really do think that was the turning point for him.
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u/Astex92 1d ago
I think he got into the hollywood scene after Thor Ragnarok and got surrounded by yes men, so the quality dropped from him unfortunately.
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u/hazbutler 23h ago
He LOVES the attention and the fame. He left his wife for someone famous and has continued to think his fame comes with creative invincibility. He will end up having zero pull.
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u/4square425 23h ago
How many times has that been true. Patton Oswalt has a great bit on how many good movies were directed by a man and edited by a woman.
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u/TheTitan99 1d ago
I read this book a few weeks ago. It's rather quiet and understated. Was it really turned into a loud and colorful comedy? Even quality of the comedy aside, that's a very strange adaptation. It would be like adapting Jurassic Park into a romance.
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u/presswanders 1d ago
I’m mid way through the book I can’t imagine this being a comedy it’s so fucking bleak.
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u/TripleThreatTua 22h ago
Even at Waititi’s peak he would’ve been a bad choice to adapt pretty much anything by Ishiguro
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u/Fully_Jaded 21h ago
Ya I've also read this book. The only other Kazuo Ishiguro book I've read is The Buried Giant and it has a similar tone. It would not translate well to a comedy and completely ruin the message of the book.
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u/rustybutterindia 22h ago
I feel like Taika probably didn't actually read the book
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u/Cipher-IX 1d ago
What happened to Taika?
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u/LuinAelin 1d ago
Sometime just being told you're great over and over can give people a huge ass ego. And kinda stops them from seeing when they're making mistakes
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u/7screws 1d ago
Exactly this, everything after like JoJo Rabbit has been such self fallacious bullshit I can’t even make it through his movies and have no interest in even trying anymore. Thor Love and Thunder is one of the worst movies ever.
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u/darkgothamite 1d ago
His ex-wife was the glue that kept his previous work together.
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u/GidimXul 1d ago
He is a comedic writer that has had some successes blending comedy into darker subjects (JoJo Rabbit). There was nothing comedic about Klara. This was just a poor choice of director and actors all around.
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u/locke_5 1d ago
RyanReynoldsification
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u/dandy_the_lesser 1d ago
No disrespect, genuine question, can you explain what you mean by this?
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u/TrioOfTerrors 1d ago
Instead of quippy dialog being a little seasoning, it becomes the main course.
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u/TheCheshireCody 1d ago
Probably just that he's gotten too "high on his own supply". His first few movies were so good (they really were!) that he stopped even thinking critically about his own work. Also ref: George Lucas making the Special Editions and Prequels - he surrounded himself with people who thought he was a god of filmmaking so nobody involved even perceived the things that were problematic about sooooo many of his ideas.
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u/rageofreaper 1d ago
Believes his own hype, thinks of himself as a directorial savant, and has high profile people around him telling him he’s so talented and different and oh so quirky and not like the other girls. Insufferable, arrogant, self serving egotistical narcissist with a Deadpool style talent that is only useful in one very specific genre and any time he steps outside of that, he falls flat on his smug face.
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u/MasterKingdomKey 1d ago
What happened to Taika? ‘Bro made art with Hunt for the Wilderpeople’ and ‘Jojo Rabbit’.
Now seems like none of his work resonates anymore
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u/_Laszlo_Cravensworth 1d ago
He left his wife. All of his movies have been terrible since. She probably reined in his ego.
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u/Gastroid 1d ago
Oh no, Taika is the Ethan Coen half of the working relationship?
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u/Verbal_Combat 1d ago
What's funny about that is his real (legal) last name is actually Cohen. Waititi is a chosen name.
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u/ExtremeResearch600 20h ago
Waititi is his father’s surname, Cohen is his mother’s surname. So yeah he made the choice to use Waititi but he has every right to.
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u/pie-oh 19h ago
I suspect he chose Waititi to be closer to his Maori roots, which makes total sense. I've got friends who belong to multiple cultures and ethnicities who find it hard to find their identity fully. For all his faults, I think it's cool that he uses the name considering Maori are underrepresented in global media.
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u/ExtremeResearch600 19h ago
I’m from NZ but not Māori, although a significant number of my family are Māori and Pacific people. There are a number of Māori who have changed their names to previously held family names or Māori versions of European names. I.e. from John to Hone. It’s not an unusual thing to do!
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u/hazbutler 23h ago
Bingo. Ever since he thought breaking up his family to bang a pop star would be beneficial to his career, it has been anything but.
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u/DTFlash 1d ago
He has probably surrounded himself with people that tell him all his ideas are great.
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u/TheTresStateArea 1d ago
It happens all the time man. We need people to hold us down and say no, no that's a bad idea.
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u/spaceraingame 1d ago
He was on top of the world with Thor Ragnarok and Jojo Rabbit which won him an Oscar. He was even set to do his own Star Wars movie. Crazy how he’s fallen off…
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u/goldenboy2191 1d ago
His ex was his co-writer
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u/Random_Somebody 1d ago
Ahah wow yeah I saw on Wiki his ex was a director for at least "What We Do In the Shadows" and "Jojo Rabbit" and their breakup was right after both Ragnarok and during Jojo Rabbit's creation.
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u/DullRelief 1d ago
Even his shows, What We Do in the Shadows, but especially Our Flag Means Death, are complete visions and, in the case of the latter, very touching and insightful despite being mixed with humor.
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u/thrillafrommanilla_1 23h ago
He didn’t write either. He acted in both. I LOVED him in OFMD. But the showrunner was David Jenkins. Taika gets credit for seeing a good project and supporting it as EP. But beyond that it was just acting. Which was VERY good.
I’m just so disappointed he’s an insufferable asshole. He should get off the drugs. Man’s not gonna live another decade if he don’t.
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u/chancesarent 1d ago
Chelsea Winstanley was a bigger influence with his work than people realize.
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u/BigBroFriday 1d ago
He went Hollywood. Divorcing your wife for a c-tier popstar is bad karma lol
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u/Scotfighter 1d ago
His ego got in his own way. After jojo and Thor 3. He changed. I heard he was insufferable to work with
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u/FireZord25 1d ago
Yeah I was wondering the same thing. Dude feels like he got hit by a stupid beam since Thor: Love and Thunder.
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u/ItstartswiththeHouse 1d ago
I have been wondering the same. I wouldn't think comedic directors could be 'washed' like an aging pitcher who lost his fastball, but it sure seems like that with Taika. Strange
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u/wanderinglintu 1d ago edited 1d ago
Exactly! It's so sad. He was capable of doing great (and respectful) adaptions. 'Boy' was also wonderful.
And, now.... his stuff is rubbish
Edited- spelling
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u/thrillafrommanilla_1 23h ago
Remember how Boy was like “my absent father is a super star who can do anything!” And you see him being quite odd, charming and troubled, but by the end the boy sees the shitty parts of the man, real pathetic stuff?
Yeah. He’s become the dad now. Shame.
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u/StreetRich5026 1d ago
Taika Waititi's writing can literally only be restrained by subject matter as serious as Hitler and the Holocaust
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u/thumbles_comic 1d ago
I remember watching Free Guy and thinking he was the worst part of that bland-ass movie, I felt so confused at how he managed to be so unfunny and annoying. Seems like that issue has gotten worse for him
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u/sean_psc 1d ago
Ishiguro and Waititi never remotely made sense as a stylistic fit at a glance, and on closer inspection that is still the case.
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u/Dazzling-Slide8288 1d ago
Jenna Ortega has to have the worst agent in Hollywood. Every single thing she does is a disaster.
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u/ejcasablancas 1d ago edited 1d ago
Amy Adams after 2016 is right there with her.
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u/SHIIZAAAAAAAA 17h ago
I was shocked at just how boring Nightbitch is. Like, how do you waste a premise like that?
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u/LABS_Games 13h ago
Absolutely brutal what happened with her career. I know she's at an age where good parts for actresses are harder to come by, but I really thought she'd easily occupy the Kate Winslet / Jessica Chastain / Anne Hathaway/ Emily Blunt space. Maybe she's got a bit more of an every woman quality, but she really looked like she was gonna be the modern Glenn Close or maybe even Meryl. But damn, she legitimately hasn't had a good movie in a decade.
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u/Little_Consequence 1d ago
And the sad thing is that she's often in things that sound good on paper.
That The Weeknd movie was directed by the guy who did Waves and starred Barry Keoghan. That should've been good!
An A24 horror with Paul Rudd and Will Poulter? Sounds fine imo.
A thriller with Natalie Portman, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Sterling K. Brown? I'd sign up for it too!
Taika Waititi is an Oscar winner and KATS is a popular book. Why not?
She's cursed 😭
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u/JBerczi 1d ago
It’s a shame what’s happened to him. What We Do in the Shadows is one of the best comedies of the 21st century
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u/artpayne Cliffs on both sides, I'm not gonna paddle to New Zealand! 1d ago
Taika Waititi. Whatever happened there.
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u/Only-For-Fun-No-Pol 1d ago
Ortega cannot get a win for artful or more indie-styled movies.
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u/helm_hammer_hand 1d ago
Her and Amy Adams need to fire their agent. I hope their paychecks have been good.
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u/lordofdunshire 1d ago
Even Taika Waititi at his best and least self indulgent wouldn't have been the right fit for this adaptation. I read the book in two days and adored it like every other Ishiguro book I've read, but his style of slow, contemplative earnestness was never going to work with this type of direction.
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u/PhantomOfTheNopera 1d ago
Exactly. I knew the project was doomed because the tones of Waititi's and Ishiguro's work are so very different. The trailer confirmed it.
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u/Mrfish31 1d ago
Just based on the trailer (I think I'm gonna refuse to watch this film), it looks insane. It would be like turning The Remains of the Day into a Romcom.
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u/Kurtomatic 1d ago
Of the two movies that came out this week and next that I wanted to see, I did not expect Street Fighter to be the better reviewed one.
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u/GuybrushThreepwood99 1d ago
Taika's decline has been tragic. I kinda wish that he was never hired for Thor Ragnarok.
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u/QTRqtr 1d ago
That’s on him. His wife was integral to his movies similar to George Lucas back in the day but he had to go cheat on her, try to be a celebrity, and get loss in the powder.
He’s a had a reputation for years of being a pompous dick back in New Zealand. But at least then he made great movies.
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u/ChalupaBatmanMc01 1d ago
He’s a had a reputation for years of being a pompous dick back in New Zealand. But at least then he made great movies.
That's a shame, thought he was a big deal in bring attention to New Zealand and Maori's film scene
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u/QTRqtr 1d ago
Oh he brought great attention and his early filmography is great. It was just an open secret that he was the jerk of the duo while his wife was the sociable one.
He thought he could do Hollywood without her the second he got a chance. She’s still adored in New Zealand probably even more so.
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u/SubJovi 1d ago
I loved the book and knew from the 1st trailer this'd be a disaster. I'm a somewhat Waititi apologist (Conchords, Shadows and Boy are masterpieces, and that 1st Thor film was about as "fun" as any Marvel movie has been), but his tone was always going to be SO wrong for an Ishiguro adaption; I don't know how it ever got off the ground.
Maybe just count our blessings that his Akira adaptation didn't...
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u/Legitimate-Public-56 23h ago
Looks like people are getting tired of his hey I know someone’s dead, but this can really use some comedy right now routine
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u/BusinessPurge 1d ago
“Unspeakable acting” is quite the burn. Curious if The Great Beyond turns out ok or if that’s the next Ortega project to implode.
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u/Kore20 1d ago
Free Amy Adams and Jenna ortega from their agents dude, theyre trapped in shitty movie jail
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u/spider-man2401 1d ago
Jesus, what happened to Taika Waititi after Jojo Rabbit, man? Love and Thunder was bad, but this? Yikes. He and Matthew Vaughn are probably two of the best examples of directors who have fallen from grace, with their quality dropping off so fast. They should probably learn a thing or two from M. Night Shyamalan, who also experienced a major downfall but managed to rise again.
The same goes for Amy Adams after Arrival. She gave a great performance in Sharp Objects, but almost everything she’s done since then has been a bad project.
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u/LizLemonOfTroy 13h ago
Shyamalan will make one okay film every now and then, prompting people to predict a career comeback, only to immediately tank again.
The Visit and Split were immediately followed by Glass and Old, and Knock at the Cabin was immediately followed by Trap.
He hasn't managed to have two great, back-to-back films since 2000.
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u/Three_Froggy_Problem 1d ago
I think the problem with Taika is that his success made him very conscious of his own style. Now, instead of just making the films he wants to make in the style that he wants to make them, he’s very deliberately trying to make Taika Waititi films. It’s like the real world version of getting Flanderized.
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u/ROBtimusPrime1995 1d ago
Something is broken with Taika, and I think the Hollywood lifestyle ate him alive.
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u/FixMyHeart16 1d ago
I found the trailer to be jarring. I loved the book, no idea why Taika thought a comedic angle was the way to take on that bittersweet story. also disappointing cause I used to be a fan of his work before Love and Thunder happened.
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u/bert1001 1d ago
When I saw the trailer, I was confused. The tone was so different to the book. I hoped it was just a bad trailer…
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u/15millionschmeckles 1d ago
God it’s so delicious when the world finally starts to see a creator’s work the way you always have
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u/phantom_avenger 1d ago edited 1d ago
What happened to this guy’s talent as a filmmaker?! I thought he was on his way to becoming one of the best and most respected in the industry!
Then the quality of his work went down, and it started with Thor: Love and Thunder (I was willing to let that slide because it was a franchise film, and some good directors that made MCU projects didn’t give their best work like Chloe Zhao with Eternals)
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u/Cash_Cab 1d ago
I dont get how he's making such consistently shit movies in these past years when he made some very decent films prior to like 2020
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u/Dove_of_Doom 1d ago
It seems like Waititi should probably stick to original projects because his sensibility and style rarely work for adaptations.
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u/wanderinglintu 1d ago
Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Jojo Rabbit were both adaptations which he did an excellent and respectful job of.
But, he seems to have lost the subtly and nuance he once had.
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u/Crazyripps 21h ago
I wonder if anyone’s there to say no to him nowadays. Like no one to real him in. Because the fall off is crazy
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u/AEveryDayIdiot 1d ago
I’m kinda glad I saw this at LFF before the reviews cause I thought it was good only to later find out I had apparently witnessed the worst movie ever made. I hadn’t read the book so maybe that’s why I guess.
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u/ltcuetf 1d ago
Taika used to be a director who could balance humor with genuine emotion, but lately he can’t resist undercutting every serious moment with a joke. And between the creative criticism and what his ex-wife has said about their marriage, it’s hard not to wonder if success has gone to his head a little. He clearly needs people around him who are willing to tell him no, both personally and creatively.
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u/ConsistentGuest7532 1d ago
Waititi’s 2020s fall-off needs to be studied. This is one for the books.
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u/riegspsych325 ⊃∪⊃⪽ 1d ago
it sucks Taika has seemingly lost his mojo and burned amy goodwill after Thor 4. What happened to him and the likes of Edgar Wright and Shane Black? All fast paced, witty directors who also write but got lost in the sauce or something these past few years
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u/92tilinfinityand 1d ago
Damn dude this dude has had one of the bigger falls off in recent memory. Real shame. That first five film run was special and I do like Jojo Rabbit quite a bit.