Taika Waititi Fires Back at Klara and the Sun Critics

Taika Waititi has answered the harsh reviews facing Klara and the Sun by publicly siding with the movie’s audience response. In a Halloween post, the director highlighted a wide gap between viewer and critic scores while dismissing reviewers who rejected his adaptation.

Waititi said he has avoided reading reviews aimed at him or his peers for nearly 15 years, but still pays attention to moviegoers. His post pointed to an audience score of 78 percent and a critic score of 28 percent at the time the image was shared. Those numbers remained subject to change as more ratings arrived.

A difficult theatrical start

The reaction came after a modest opening for the Sony release. Industry reports placed the film at roughly $720,000 to $725,000 from 880 North American theaters during its first weekend, leaving it outside the domestic top 10.

That split between weak reviews, a warmer audience score and limited ticket sales became the center of Waititi’s argument. He characterized critics as disconnected from viewers and invoked Jojo Rabbit, another of his films that drew divided responses before winning the Academy Award for adapted screenplay.

An AI story with a human question

Adapted from Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2021 novel, Klara and the Sun stars Jenna Ortega as Klara, an android designed to serve as an artificial companion. She is purchased for Josie, a seriously ill teenager, and tries to understand the family’s grief and complicated expectations.

Amy Adams also stars in the dystopian drama. While promoting the film, Waititi connected its premise to the entertainment industry’s debate over artificial intelligence. He said he could accept AI as a tool used by people, but not as a replacement for human workers.

His latest comments shift the movie’s conversation from its story to the relationship between filmmakers, reviewers and audiences. They do not erase the challenging box-office start, and audience-score snapshots are not the same as ticket sales. Still, the response makes clear that Waititi intends to defend the film on the basis of viewers who have embraced it rather than the notices that have rejected it.