sum up Ron Howard's directing career in one word

Agreed. Does the job. I wouldn't call him an auteur.

Careful, Tweedy. The Mort's Frenchified. - Bill The Butcher, Gangs of New York

Range.

He's done Sci-Fi, Drama, Historical, Thriller, Action, Comedy. The guy can pull off just about anything. I see what you mean when you say that he gets the job done, but it's nothing special. But so many filmmakers out there are subpar or mediocre. I'd say Ron Howard is above average.

Average. Never had a movie that really blew me away. A couple good ones and a couple stinkers, but over all, I consider him to be run-of-the-mill.

Craftsman.

He's made some good even great movies. However, he's also done a few average ones and a few stinkers. I wouldn't call him an auteur on the level of Scorsese or The Coen Brothers or Clint Eastwood. He's good at what he does.

The Coens and Paul Thomas Anderson couldn't make the movies they make if they didn't write them themselves. Eastwood is slightly different. He doesn't actually sit down, write a script and turn it into a movie. But you know that he works closely with the writers and involves himself in the shaping of the screenplay. Therefore, there's a consistency to his work, even when he misses.

Ron Howard doesn't involve himself in writing at all. He merely takes the scripts he's given and makes movies out of them. Hence the inconsistency. That's why, for every Apollo 13, Frost/Nixon, Cinderella Man or Parenthood he may give us, there's also average entries like Ransom and Angels And Demons as well as clunkers like Da Vinci Code and Grinch. No a director doesn't need to be a writer as well to make personal films. But overall I think Howard could gain a lot if he were to try writing. Or at the very least, find a better screenwriter than Akiva Goldsman.

Lightsoda.

Over

just....over.....

Bland

Decent

But I think the 1st description workmanlike like is the most accurate.