Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi's newest film, the hopeful sci-fi flick Klara and the Sun, is having a rough run of it. Based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name and starring Jenna Ortega as an outdated android finding a home and friendship, Klara and the Sun premiered in theaters on October 23 and was immediately met with a wall of negative reviews following its world premiere, many of which latched on to how tonally dissonant Waititi's quirky, chipper film was compared to its source material. As of this writing, it holds a 24% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
However, the audience score is shaking out differently. Klara currently sits at a 74% there, which Taititi used as an excuse to lash out at the critics who were clearly wrong about the movie.
"I haven't read a review of anything aimed at me or my peers in almost 15 years. But I do listen to the people," Waititi wrote on Instagram. "So this Halloween, let's spare a thought for those sad lost souls who couldn't achieve their dreams of becoming artists, and thus settled, and became critics. The same people who also hated Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin."
If Taiki Waititi isn't upset about reviews, why does he sound so upset about reviews?
Navigating negative reviews is an unpleasant reality for many artists, and each needs to find a balanced way to walk that path that works for them. Ignoring reviews is certainly a valid way to go, but in this instance, it's pretty telling that Waititi is lashing out at critics by claiming he doesn't read reviews...because if he was totally unaware of how badly Klara and the Sun is being received, he wouldn't feel the need for this post, right? He may not be reading specific pieces, but he's certainly keeping track of the fact that it's being almost universally panned.
Regardless of whether critics are right about Klara and the Sun or not, the box office numbers for the film don't lie. Klara was made with a reported budget of $20 million, and it took in around $725,000 in its opening weekend (via Collider). The chances that it's going to make back that budget are basically non-existent at this point, especially after the film's distributor, Sony, pared back its original wider release plan of 2,000 U.S. theaters to only 880, following its disappointing reviews and strong competition from other films like Wildwood, Clayface, and Wicker. Spanish outlet Hobby Consolas (via Gizmodo) has reported that the film's run in Spain was canceled as well, casting doubt on its international prospects.
Winter Is Coming's own reviewer, Abigail Stevens, had this to say for Klara and the Sun: "Klara and the Sun is a feel-good sci-fi flick that ends up being largely about an AI character’s capacity for love, but the world around the girls is nothing more than wacky set dressing, no matter how sweet their relationship is. Waititi doesn’t handle the bigger themes with any modicum of nuance or sophistication, but I’ve found that low expectations can do wonders in enjoying a film such as this."
Whether Klara and the Sun is destined to become a cult classic or it'll go into the bin of obscurity like the critics Waititi so loathes, only time will tell. If you're curious, you can catch the film now, playing in select theaters.
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