Venom (2018) (Sony Pictures)
Black Panther Spider-Man.. I mean.. Venom, released October 5th, 2018 to a slaughter of critic scores in the cine-plex. At the time of this writing, Venom sits at a 32% on Rotten Tomatoes which makes it officially a certified load of crap, but does that translate across all boards? Could viewers disagree with critics? Rhetorical; the fact of the matter is that fans and the average viewer alike agree that Venom is a smash hit and here are my reasons for the divide:
A Story Lost to Madness (And Funniness?)
Venom is absurd (the character and the film) but that’s not a bad thing! Quite frankly, the film starts at a bad pace and really doesn’t pick up until the 2nd act with the introduction of Venom himself. The majority of major blockbuster films are now suffering from an interesting concept of “Marvel-it-up,” which translates to “make all movies funny.” What happens when you try to make more things funny? Critics get tired of the same-old, but the average movie goer who takes a trip to the movies once a month doesn’t experience the same fatigue of “Marvel-itis” (yes I made my own word, sue-itis me).
What Makes this Redeemable?
Tom Hardy, despite some of his questionable roles (I’m looking at you Bane in Batman: The Dark Knight Rises), is quite the extraordinary actor and certainly gets to flex his acting chops in Venom as both his roles as Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote, which he provides voice over work for. The bread and butter of this film is churned through the character interactions between Brock and Venom
Where did Sony Stumble?
Sony (the movie studio) has a bad habit of showing too much in their movie
trailers and some could make an interesting case for this film’s trailers ruining all of the best action sequences in the film itself. The surprise is that, although it is an interested marketing strategy, it shouldn’t be a pejorative to movie goers. It isn’t and shouldn’t be the “end-all, be-all” for a film to have a questionable trailer production team, but yet here we sit talking about it’s importance (so… hint-hint Sony…).
Isn’t Venom a Bad Guy?
The Anti-Hero isn’t that much of a new frontier. It was done recently by DC and the like (à la Suicide Squad, Spawn, DeadPool, Wolverine, Ghost-Rider…), but where does Venom sit on the hero-scale spectrum? Without getting too much into spoiler territory, Venom becomes a person (symbiote) whom the audience can get behind. In their own individual spin-off movies, of course they’ll be the hero to their story!
Should you See it or Not? Who Do I Believe?
No one! Believe no one! I typically love to get my media reviews from famous YouTubers such as “Beyond the Trailer,” and “Angry Joe,” (all of whom I highly recommend, both for entertainment and astute critical analysis values, which are credited to different demographics) but I’ve even disagreed with their views on different products of media. The best way to form your own opinion is to form it yourself (and listen to me of course).
What are your thoughts on the Venom (2018) movie? Did it surpass your expectations?
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