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Credit: Far Out \/ YouTube Still<\/p>\n
Fri 10 July 2026 17:15, UK <\/p>\n
It can\u2019t be denied that he\u2019s made a few good movies, and even a couple of great ones, but Ron Howard<\/a> has never helmed anything that could rightfully be called a cinematic game-changer.<\/p>\n The actor-turned-filmmaker has over two dozen features to his name, and while they\u2019ve run the gamut of genres and showcased his versatility and willingness to try almost anything once, none of them have made a lasting, transformative, or indelible impact on the industry that ushered in a new era.<\/p>\n Could he make something like that, even if he wanted to? It\u2019s debatable, with Howard being known more for his workmanlike efforts behind the camera and being a safe pair of hands<\/a> than an auteur who\u2019d rock the boat, break new ground, or put his name on anything that\u2019s even a little bit daring or dangerous.<\/p>\n His highest-grossing release, The Da Vinci Code, was panned by critics, while his best movie, Apollo 13, couldn\u2019t even get him on the Academy Awards shortlist<\/a> for \u2018Best Director\u2019. He\u2019s one of the most commercially successful directors of all time, sure, but after 50 years, he still doesn\u2019t have a distinctive style, which is just the way he likes it, for some reason.<\/p>\n And yet, Howard could have changed the course of blockbuster history, and more than once. He was offered the reins on the first Harry Potter flick<\/a> but turned it down, and that wasn\u2019t the only massively influential big-budget release of the early 20th century that courted his services.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a chance at Batman years ago, and Spider-Man,\u201d he informed Bill Maher. \u201cNot the Spider-Man that my daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard, was in. Don\u2019t we all love that one?\u201d He\u2019s being facetious, because not many people loved Sam Raimi\u2019s threequel<\/a>, but since the character\u2019s first live-action feature was only released in 2002, he could have only realistically been in the running for that one.<\/p>\n Howard didn\u2019t specify which Batman film he\u2019d been offered, but he\u2019s been around for so long that it could have been either Tim Burton\u2019s 1989 original or Joel Schumacher\u2019s 1995 nipples-and-neon extravaganza, but there hadn\u2019t been a Spider-Man movie before \u201902, which makes that one pretty cut-and-dried.<\/p>\n Further reading: Cutting Room Floor<\/p>\n Stephen Norrington\u2019s Blade and Bryan Singer\u2019s X-Men may have restored the superhero genre to mainstream prominence, but it was Raimi who blew the door off its hinges, with his web-slinging adventure becoming one of the top-earning releases in cinema history. After that, every comic book with even a sliver of name recognition was swiftly gobbled up and spat out onto the silver screen.<\/p>\n By treating the narrative as a modern mythological tale, dedicating the first instalment to the origin story, treating the source material seriously, and hiring an auteur to inject it with their own sensibilities, for better or worse<\/a>, Raimi\u2019s Spider-Man set the template for Batman Begins, the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the ongoing superhero obsession, which may not have unfolded in quiet the same way with Howard\u2019s complete absence of panache at the helm.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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