Venom (2018)

[aabattery]

[aabattery]

Absolutely lost my shit at the post credits scene.

 

Woody's wig!

[Joel M]

Tom Hardy is simply amazing in this and not in a so bad it's good sort of way. He's outright amazing. The movie sucks tho, outside of Hardy it's just a boring uninspired mess. Fleischer might be the actual worst director in Hollywood atm.

[kaijukurt]

Perfect example of a B-level superhero film.

 

Tom Hardy with the ham, some neat action/VFX sequnces (though the quality noticeably drops in the finale), a dash of humor (some unintentional) and half baked subplots & supporting characters.

 

Its not great, but its a decent way to kill some time. 

Edited October 5, 2018 by kaijukurt

[rukaio101]

Huh. Well, that was certainly a thing. (Cross posting this from my 31 Horror Movies in 31 Days thread, fyi.)

 

You know, it’s kinda funny. I made a big deal on my 31 Horror Movies thread about how and why I should totally be allowed to count this as a ‘horror’ movie, in spite of how clearly the trailers and marketing have made it look like it’s supposed to just be another superhero movie in the style of Marvel. Yet, upon watching the movie itself, I couldn’t help but notice that the most interesting parts of it where when it stopped trying to be a superhero movie and instead acted like a weird, creepy horror-comedy possession flick, while the least interesting parts of it were when it was actually trying to be a superhero movie.

 

Yes, this is attempt No 372 of Sony’s to attempt to cash in on the MCU/Cinematic Universe craze. You’d think the absolute car crash of a reputation TASM2 got, combined with the almost universal internet mockery of the dozens of rumoured ideas they’ve been throwing about (an Aunt May movie, fucking seriously?) would’ve discouraged them, but no. But in this case, their shameless greed and absolute incompetence more irritates me than amuses. Because… honestly… I actually think there’s a fairly good movie buried within Venom. A weird and silly and probably hard R movie, but a good one nonetheless.

 

See, the comment I made earlier about the 'least interesting parts of Venom being the parts when it most tries to act like a superhero movie' more or less sums up my thoughts on the movie. You could practically make a tally about all the boring scenes that feel like they’re there just because that’s what superhero movies do. It’s especially notable in the 1st act which was probably the most generically boring ‘1st act superhero movie’ I’ve seen in a blockbuster since forever. You can practically predict every scene and character beat in it note for note and there’s not a single spark of imagination or charisma or anything worthwhile in it whatsoever. Even Tom Hardy seems somewhat boring to start with (which trust me, is not the case for the rest of the movie).

 

However, after Tom Hardy gets infected by the Venom symbiote and starts hearing voices, the movie takes a hard 180 from painfully generic to hilariously bugfuck insane. Tom Hardy clearly has a blast with the mentally deteriorating Eddie and his weird cravings and ticks and interplay with the sociopathic voice in his head are all great fun to watch. Push it a little further and reattach that R-Rating that was sorely missing and I could easily see this being a fantastic horror/black-comedy. I was about ready to mentally switch off after about half an hour of the first act, but this immediately pulled me back in as Tom Hardy takes a bath in a lobster pool or does some crazy stupid shit that’s hilarious to watch.

 

However, midway through the second act, after a cool little fight scene bolstered by Tom Hardy’s fantastically twitchy performance, he gets into a big car chase sequence, something that’s again often a staple of a lot of superhero movies. Which is why I don’t think it’s a coincidence that it’s the point where the movie immediately starts getting boring again. It's not a good car chase. It feels like it goes on too long, only has a handful of cool moments and features the most stupidly wasteful use of drones I’ve ever seen. (Seriously, kamikaze-ing them into vehicles can not be the most cost effective way to kill someone). Fortunately, once it’s over, we get right back to Tom Hardy and Venom being bugnut insane and having great chemistry with each other, but it only goes further to prove my theory that Venom is at its least interesting when it’s just trying to mimic its competitors.

 

It’s especially notable because I actually kinda enjoyed the action scene that came shortly after, with a full-suited Venom going full movie monster on a swat team and picking them off out of the smoke while they desperately try to kill him. It’s violent and brutal (albeit still clearly tamed down for the PG 13 rating) and fun and not really something you’d see in a traditional superhero movie. I’m not going to call it outstanding, but I had more fun with it than any of the other more traditional action sequences.

 

Anyway, more crazy stuff happens with Tom Hardy and Venom and it’s relatively entertaining, right until we get up to the big superhero movie climax. You know the one and, if you’ve been paying attention, you know exactly how it’s going to play out. Venom fights a slightly more powerful version of himself and it’s as smashy and dull and filled with all the same boring emotional beats you expect. And I’ve especially got to bring up Ric Ahmed’s villain here, who I just fucking hated all throughout the movie. Almost every scene he’s in, he’s delivering some self-righteous ‘for the greater good’ speech that is clearly supposed to make him seem intelligent and just a bit frightening and give him ‘complex’ motivations, but it feels more like someone just opened up their ‘Dummies Guide to writing ‘for the Greater Good’ speeches and copied and pasted the most basic examples. It doesn’t make him intimidating or sympathetic, it just makes him boring and self-righteous and yet again another superhero movie feature that just doesn’t work in this movie. It doesn’t help that Riz Ahmed, as much as I’ve loved him in other movies, has absolutely no menace. Absolutely none. He’s more punchable than intimidating.

 

Honestly, it really is kind of a shame that this movie didn’t end up being what it wanted to be. Almost all the issues I had above feel like stuff re-shot or ordered by executives to make it more palatable and like the traditional superhero movie format, yet it’s ultimately what drags the movie down from it’s original glorious vision. Which is a bugfuck crazy, hilariously fun horror-comedy ride that I really did want to see more of. Heck, I’m not surprised in the slightest to learn that Tom Hardy said nearly 40 minutes of content was cut out of it and that said 40 minutes contained almost all of his favourite bits. And I really want to see how that 40 minutes turned out, because what little I could see though the cracks of this movie was deliciously insane and entertaining.

 

Basically, long story short, screw the Snyder cut, that’s going to be awful either way. Bring me the goddamn hard R Venom cut, with all the drippings. And then bring me a sequel with Woody Harrelson in a terrible wig attempting to out-ham Tom Hardy. Which is something I never would’ve thought I wanted until I saw the post-credits scene to this film, but now I can’t think of anything I want more.

Edited October 5, 2018 by rukaio101

[cheesypoofs]

I got everything I wanted out of this. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's critic rating is pretty harsh imho.

 

I'd give it a B/B+

[cheesypoofs]

10 hours ago, Joel M said:

Tom Hardy is simply amazing in this and not in a so bad it's good sort of way. He's outright amazing. The movie sucks tho, outside of Hardy it's just a boring uninspired mess. Fleischer might be the actual worst director in Hollywood atm.

I disagree with Fleischer being a bad director. I am a huge fan of Zombieland, I liked Gangster Squad, and I really liked Venom.

[filmlover]

This was disappointing in that it's neither as good as it should have been or a "so bad it's good" entry. Instead, it's mediocre. Frustratingly, annoyingly, hopelessly mediocre. Think a bland superhero movie that came out about 15 years ago when the standards for the genre weren't so high.

 

The film's problems are numerous. Character actions and motivations make little sense. The action is rarely exciting and the big CGI climax features two interchangeable figures fighting. Venom himself is an unconvincing creation (the CGI of the character in Spider-Man 3, which was actually a better movie than this, was more convincing and that movie came out over 11 years ago). And it feels like it was obviously condensed from an R rating into a PG-13 because Sony wanted the family audience.

 

Tom Hardy has certainly proven he's a strong actor in the past. This is not gonna go down as one of his finest hours. He never feels at home with the character(s) of Eddie Brock/Venom, and his American accent is weak. That said, some of the conversations between him and the symbiote had me dying of laughter ("Pussy!" ). Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed give serviceable performances in the underdeveloped roles they're saddled with; hopefully the paychecks were nice, at least. And I LOLed hard at Woody Harrelson in that Carrot Top wig in the sequel-teasing mid-credits scene.

 

Is it one of the worst superhero movies ever? Absolutely not, I've seen far crummier superhero movies than this. But that's not a ringing endorsement either. I'm more than welcoming of additional comic book franchises outside of the MCU existing, but subpar efforts like this aren't gonna cut it.

 

C-

Edited October 6, 2018 by filmlover

[Frozen]

I enjoyed this a lot. It was funny and different. So much better than Ant-Man or its sequel. I wish I couldn’t stolen Luis from Ant-Man and put him in this film because he’s all I like about that movie. 

 

My main issue with the film is we aren’t really given much background on the characters before the action starts. I feel like we barely had an act 1. 

 

I dont understabd why Sony can’t use Spider-Man in these? 

[YLF]

The glaring similarities between this movie and upgrade made me enjoy this less. Upgrade did it so much better, w/ far less of a budget. I still enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would, but its a shame that upgrade didnt garner more attention than it did.

 

C+/B-

Edited October 7, 2018 by YLF

[Webslinger]

Despite Tom Hardy’s best efforts to do something interesting with the title role, Venom mostly feels like a desperate, out-of-touch attempt to capitalize on superhero extended universes that feels like a remnant of Sony’s ill-fated attempt to build a universe around the Amazing Spider-Man films that somehow jumped into our release schedule from an alternate timeline. The tagline on the poster says that “The World Has Enough Superheroes,” and yet it’s so transparently clear that the studio wants a generic, crowd-pleasing superhero movie that the filmmakers are not permitted to go nearly as dark nor violent as the source material merits. The first hour is okay – a boring but not horrendous affair that gets decent mileage from Hardy’s performance – but it falls to pieces in a lazy, dumb, and unengaging final half-hour that gives the impression that everyone involved ran out of ideas and desperately wants to wrap the proceedings up. Moreover, the film does so little to embrace Venom’s antihero personality that even the oft-derided take on the character from Spider-Man 3 feels more complete and compelling. And it’s a shame considering that Hardy tries so hard to make Eddie Brock pop as an eccentric character and develop an oddball relationship between Brock and Venom; he’s just left with so little to work with in the script that his effort can’t redeem the film. The rest of the cast is wasted in underwritten stock roles, and neither the action nor the comedy really leaves any impact. I’m sure there are plenty of viewers out there who worried that Venom would mark a pale attempt to follow Deadpool’s genre-busting R-rated antihero lead, but it never even attempts to be as fresh, irreverent, or self-aware as that film. Instead, it feels like an awkward, uninspired placeholder film that mistakes low stakes, weak storytelling, and vague teasing in its mid-credits scenes for meaningful world-building.

 

C-

 

Stray Thoughts:

- I'm sure I'm far from the first one to say this, but... Life HAD to be a stealth prequel to this movie at some point in its development, right? Like, on a canon level. The connection that was speculated upon back when that film came out feels like it was all but confirmed by the fact that Life is even part of the name of the villain's company.

 

- The end credits were kinda comical in their large print and slow speed. Sony really didn't want viewers to know how short this movie was, I guess. (For reference, I clocked it at around 91-92 minutes when the first set of credits began to roll.)

 

- Dear Hollywood: Please stop wasting Jenny Slate. She's far too funny to be stuck in roles like Scientist with Conscience Who Will Die for Doing What's Right.

 

- Also Dear Hollywood: Please stop wasting Michelle Williams. She should have at least one Oscar by now.

 

- Seriously, Topher Grace's Spider-Man 3 Venom was a better villain than whatever Riz Ahmed was trying to do here.

[DeeCee]

Starts to slow and stays like that to long.  In a montage Eddie is made out to be some hot shot investigative reporter but he pulls a dick move on his fiancée and plays his hand in the interview very poorly. 

 

Once it gets going with Tom Hardy and the Eddie/Venom interactions it’s a better film. 

 

Still, I’m not to sure about the practicalities of launching rockets from north of San Francisco. 

 

 Not only do the trailers show the final scene of the movie they also show half of the first post credit scene. 

[CoolioD1]

 

C-

[filmlover]

13 hours ago, Webslinger said:

- I'm sure I'm far from the first one to say this, but... Life HAD to be a stealth prequel to this movie at some point in its development, right? Like, on a canon level. The connection that was speculated upon back when that film came out feels like it was all but confirmed by the fact that Life is even part of the name of the villain's company.

We all know Venom v Calvin is one of the many planned spin-offs that Sony is planning.

[WrathOfHan]

All hail Tom Hardy. This isn't good in the traditional sense, but Hardy knows what's up. 6/10 | C+

[CoolioD1]

my biggest mistake was reading someone compare this to The Mask before i saw it. so when the goo got to that dog i was all like "oh cool there's gonna be a venom dog" and then NOTHING. LIKE EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS MOVIE.

[Kalo]

Very surprised by this movie, Tom Hardy was Amazing in the movie, it was way funnier then I thought it would be, and the odd Eddie/Venom buddy thing was great. It's kind of really cheesy at parts and the script is pretty weak as well as the final showdown, but I enjoyed this movie and I was pretty negative going in, glad it's doing so well... maybe they can do the sequel better? B+

[EarlyDeadlinePredictions]

Opening half hour of the film was straight up terrible. All characters in this film are forgettable except Venom. 

 

After that the Venom/Hardy interactions were fun and there are some decent actions sequences. 

 

Climax and finale of the film were a disappointment (Riot showing up up at the end, introducing the symbiote hierarchy and plans to take over the world, Venom revealing he's a loser on his home planet and final CGI fight) Writers just made shit up as they went along. 

 

Post Credits scene with Woody has unintentionally hilarious though. I imagined a scene like this as a joke when the Carnage rumors started and Sony actually did it. 

 

6/10 (C-) - I liked Hardy/Venom in this which saves the film from a lower score. 

[Omario]

Wasn't as bad as  people told me. For quite a bit of it i was entertained. Might have helped if it was R rated. Never saw any head munching.

 

D+

[Fancyarcher]

My review.

 

https://dailyuv.com/969500