{"id":949751,"date":"2026-11-02T10:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/949751\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T10:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:26:10","slug":"taika-waititi-slams-critics-after-viewer-response-to-klara-and-the-sun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/949751\/","title":{"rendered":"Taika Waititi slams critics after viewer response to Klara and the Sun"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe same people who also hated [Waititi\u2019s Oscar-winning film] Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the bin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TaikaTaika Waititi directing Klara and the Sun with actress Jenna Ortega. Photo \/ Matt Grace<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s Popcornmeter score on Rotten Tomatoes, voted by the audience, is currently 74%. The Tomatometer score, which represents the percentage of approved professional critic reviews that are positive, sits at just 26%, making it his worst-performing critical score as a director.<\/p>\n

His highest critical score is 97%<\/a> for the 2016 film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, closely followed by 2014 vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows with 96%. <\/p>\n

His previous lowest score was 46% for the 2023 football film Next Goal Wins.<\/p>\n

While reviews of Klara and the Sun have largely been scathing, some praised the Oscar-winning director.<\/p>\n

The Herald\u2019s Mitchell Hageman said despite the abysmal ratings from critics and book loyalists, he was pleasantly surprised. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhile some may argue it\u2019s not \u2018deep enough\u2019 to live up to its themes, I\u2019d argue it\u2019s well-acted, well-directed, and a heart-warming day out at the movies for people looking for a bit of light relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

However Hollywood Reporter called it \u201ca film so at odds with itself that it keeps straining for poignancy while trampling on any hint of genuine emotion with forced humour that rarely prompts even a smile\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Independent asked readers to \u201cimagine somebody driving a clown car through Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s original novel, and you get this Jenna Ortega-led sci-fi comedy\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"JennaJenna Ortega stars in Klara and the Sun. Photo \/ Sony<\/p>\n

In its opening week in New Zealand cinemas, the Sony film was ranked sixth at the box office, bringing in $121,931 across 111 cinemas, averaging $1098 per location. In comparison, horror film Clayface, which topped the local box office averaged $3206 per location.<\/p>\n

Klara and the Sun has so far made just over $3m in cinemas worldwide, but cost more than $75m to produce. <\/p>\n

New Zealand film incentives helped reduce some of that cost, and the studio says its actual spend was closer to $33-41m before marketing expenses. <\/p>\n

But according to a Deadline report, the international release strategy has been scaled back after poor early critical reception. They reported Sony has halted public box office reporting, reduced the film\u2019s theatrical footprint from 1900 cinemas across North America to just 880 and cancelled planned international rollouts, including the release in Spain. <\/p>\n

Reductions have also reportedly been made to marketing and distribution spend as Sony looks to limit potential losses.<\/p>\n

The sci-fi film, based on Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro\u2019s 2021 novel, stars Jenna Ortega as the artificial companion Klara, and features a star-studded cast of Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne, Simon Baker and Steve Buscemi.<\/p>\n

It was filmed across New Zealand in 2024, but the release was delayed for more than a year.<\/p>\n

Waititi recently told the Herald<\/a>, \u201cI think the biggest challenge [for adapting books to film] is that they\u2019re completely different mediums. Books can be more drawn out and take your time.<\/p>\n

\u201cA book takes days and days to read, and so it\u2019s a very different engagement with the audience. With a film you\u2019ve got to do it within an hour and a half to two hours, and you\u2019ve also got to recognise there are times when the audience is bored, and they want things to keep moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Waititi\u2019s previous Rotten Tomatoes critics scores<\/p>\n

1. Hunt for the Wilderpeople – 2016<\/p>\n

Score: 97%<\/p>\n

2. What We Do in the Shadows – 2014<\/p>\n

Score: 96%<\/p>\n

3. Thor: Ragnarok – 2017<\/p>\n

Score: 93%<\/p>\n

4. Boy – 2010<\/p>\n

Score: 88%<\/p>\n

5. Jojo Rabbit – 2019<\/p>\n

Score: 81%<\/p>\n

6. Thor: Love and Thunder – 2022<\/p>\n

Score: 64%<\/p>\n

7. Eagle vs Shark – 2007<\/p>\n

Score: 56%<\/p>\n

8. Next Goal Wins – 2023<\/p>\n

Score: 46%<\/p>\n

9. Klara and the Sun – 2026<\/p>\n

Score: 26%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe same people who also hated [Waititi\u2019s Oscar-winning film] Jojo Rabbit. Irrelevant. Out of touch. Obsolete. In the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[9490,617,64,63,8421,447,90546,134,1689,516919,10320,1685,8936,37542,79018,13882,133,60822,23928,320,319,45006,60823],"class_list":["post-949751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-after","tag-and","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-back","tag-celebrities","tag-critics","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-klara","tag-latest","tag-media","tag-over","tag-response","tag-slams","tag-social","tag-sun","tag-taika","tag-taken","tag-the","tag-to","tag-viewer","tag-waititi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}