Dr. Mantle

As others have said, it does feel like a superhero movie from ten or fifteen years ago. Scientists in lab coats, crazy billionaire, leading man just trying to make his way in the big city, etc, etc. I'm getting pretty tired of origin stories in general.

But most of the stuff between Eddie and the symbiote works pretty well. Tom Hardy, alone in a room is better than any shoot out or car chase. The film has a unique sound and look. (Incidently, DP Matthew Libatique also did A Star is Born.) And the movement of the symbiote/s feels organic and not too special effectsy.

I was disappointed that they didn't cut (or at least redub) that whole "turd in the wind" scene. And it comes AFTER the climax, so it feels rather out of place.

Also, it would have been nice if the dumb fucks at IMBD hadn't listed Woody Harrelson 4th in the cast and given away what's supposed to be a surprise.

candyrocket786

I really enjoyed the hell out of it! It's pretty much a fun ride once Brock fuses with Venom. The theater lost their shit once Kasady said "there will be Carnage".

BuddyRevell

^^
Yeah..but Woody looked pretty lame with that horrible Raggedy Ann wig

RichC2

This looks like it'll hit $65m for the weekend (per Deadline), I think it'll be a bit lower based on responses.

Why So Blu?

It did make 10 million for Thursday night screenings, so that's a boost.

Orbi-Wan Techno

Okay, I decided to see it right after work today, and....

That movie was a kick in the butt. I had so much fun, especially once Eddie and Venom merged, and the LAUGHS, actually LAUGHS in this movie were great. Happy to see where they take it.

I'm working up a full review.

Ash Ketchum

Glenn Kenny's mixed-to-negative review in The New York Times...

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/m...ype=collection

...makes it sound similar to the 2014 anime series, "Parasyte: The Maxim," which was based on a manga from the '90s.



In it, an alien tries to possess a human teenager and only manages to succeed in possessing his right arm. From then on, in order to survive, it has to protect its human hosts from all attacks, especially from other aliens who've successfully possessed hapless humans.

Not being familiar with Venom in any of its forms, I don't know if it influenced "Parasyte" or not or if the makers of VENOM drew on "Parasyte" for inspiration. It's just that Kenny's description of the plot of VENOM sounds just like "Parasyte."

devilshalo

The symbiote was created in 1984 which later became Venom in 1986.

RichC2

Parasyte is a little derivative of Spawn but minimally, they're two pretty distinctly different properties.

Mike86

Went to a matinee today. I really don’t know what to say about it. I didn’t hate it but I didn’t really like it either. It’s very much a mixed bag.

I think Tom Hardy did a good job overall and when we finally see Venom it’s cool to see. I thought overall he looked good and didn’t really mind the missing spider logo. My main complaint with Venom the character is that it took too long for him to actually show up and it felt like we didn’t see enough of him overall really. I didn’t mind the accent Hardy used for Eddie as much in the actual film as opposed to how I felt about it in the trailer. Venom sounded good.

The story is very all over the place and Eddie aside the rest of the side characters feel fairly disposable other than Annie and to some extent Dan. The villain especially was kinda meh overall. It sort of felt like we didn’t see enough of him as Riot but he did okay as the evil scientist I suppose. Some of the humor works and some of it just is too goofy (the part at the restaurant especially was eye roll inducing and way too over the top).

As far as the mid credit scene I like Woody Harrelson and I think he’s got potential to be a good Kletus/Carnage but good lord that wig was awful. I don’t know what they were thinking with that. It’s almost like it was a last minute addition and they just used the first red wig they found or something. He’d have looked better just having his hair dyed red and cut short or something.

I think I’d probably give it like three stars. It’s not good and is a very average hot mess of a movie but it’s watchable. I don’t think it’s a train wreck like some reviewers have made it out to be but it definitely isn’t up to par with what we expect now days from superhero/comic films either.

Orbi-Wan Techno

From my review page ORBI-WAN GOES TO THE MOVIES:

Venom (PG-13) - Tom Hardy and a parasitic alien develop an interesting relationship in this ultimately amusing comic book buddy movie.

Although I have never strictly kept up with comic books, per se, I am at least vaguely aware of Spider-Man’s sometimes nemesis Venom, which I believe started out as a self-aware symbiotic suit during the run of Secret Wars way back in the day? Memory is fuzzy on that. Anyway, movie audiences were first introduced to the concept of the sentient parasite in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 with Toby Maguire. Topher Grace’s nasty Eddie Brock had the misfortune of going all teeth, tongue and tentacles, and Spidey defeated the gooey villain with a church bell.

Fast forward a few years. Sony, who still own rights to the Spider-Man side of Marvel, has worked out deals with Disney/Marvel, so that our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler can fight alongside the Avengers AND continue to appear in Sony-produced comic book fare. And my guess is THAT is one of the MANY reasons why we are not seeing an R-rated Venom movie which, after watching the goo-suit anti-hero and his hapless human host Eddie Brock in their first solo outing -- not a bad idea.

2018’s Eddie Brock, as played by a manic Tom Hardy, is literally a nice guy, who is a hard-hitting investigative journalist whose mission is to seek-out and expose social injustice in the San Francisco Bay area. His fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams), is a lawyer working on a lawsuit involving an advanced science company run by the very generic villain of this show, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). A space exploration vehicle from Drake’s company has recently crash-landed in Asia after picking up several samples of an alien life-form. While one of the sentient creatures escapes during the crash, the others are brought back to Drake’s SanFran facility, where he oversees experiments attempting to meld the gooey aliens with test subjects, including several members of the Bay Area homeless population.

After a disastrous interview attempt with Drake gets Eddie fired (along with Anne), Eddie finds his life in shambles. Months later, Eddie eventually is clued in on Drake’s horrifying experiments and during a secret fact-finding break-and-enter, Eddie is exposed to and absorbs one of the parasites, who is actually pretty chatty once the two are merged. The alien calls itself “Venom” (apparently they all have self-appointed codenames), the two escape and are on the run from Drake hired henchmen and thugs, and the movie slams into overdrive. The chase through the streets of San Francisco following the escape, as Eddie and Venom are learning each other’s abilities and limitations, is inventive, fun, and exciting.

I am going to say this now - Venom could have been WAY more bloody/gory than it actually is. In fact, once Eddie/Venom are merged and the two begin to “bond” into a partnership with mutual interests and goals, Venom the movie becomes a fun ride that actually had me and the audience laughing out loud at some of the dialogue between Eddie and his inner alien, and the situations they found themselves in. And once Anne gets involved in the proceedings, I felt like things even stepped up to the next level of humor. And the fact that director Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) allowed Eddie’s sense of morality influence many of Venom’s decisions was a nice touch.

I don’t know what other reviewers who have bashed Venom were expecting. I am not beholding to the source material, had no real expectations, and ended up have a great time. I am giving Venom 3.5 out of 5 lightsabers, and am looking forward to a potential Spider-Man/Venom faceoff or even team-up.

NOTES TO PARENTS (MILD SPOILERS): “Venom” is rated PG-13 for surprisingly non-bloody but sometimes icky-ish comic book action violence, thematic material, and brief strong language. The “F” bomb is used one time, sh** is used a few times, and “pu**y” is used once as an insult. Eddie and Annie kiss and begin to undress, but no sexual activity is shown. People are intentionally and unintentionally exposed to parasitic aliens, and some who are “infected” by the creatures die painfully due to incompatibility with the symbiotes. An infected woman bites the head off of an eel at a street market. Eddie vomits into a toilet after eating out of the trash. Venom in his full form can be rather scary-looking. There is a lot of gun play in many scenes. Eddie/Venom fight a lot of thugs, goons and henchmen trying to capture them, bodies are through around and sometimes impaled. One of the symbiotes’ abilities is to create weapons from their bodies. It is implied that Venom bites the heads off at least two bad guys, but it is not explicitly shown.

MID AND AFTER-CREDIT SCENES: There is one mid-credit scene that sets up the potential for sequels, and an extended after-credits sequence that gives us a preview of the animated web-slinging we can expect at Christmas.

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B5Erik

I'm not going to see this in the theaters because, to me, it's just not VENOM.

Venom's SOLE reason for existence is hatred for Peter Parker (Spider-Man). The symbiote hates him because it was violently and painfully rejected by him. Brock hates Parker because they're rivals. When the symbiote joins with Brock their combined hatred of Peter/Spidey is what makes Venom... VENOM!!

Without that, it's just a symbiote combining with a human and creating an unstable creature with dangerous super powers. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.

But I'm not here to crap on the movie as much as ask, how well does this version of, "Venom," work for the people who have seen it? Does it really feel like Venom, or is it, as I suspect, just a Venom knock-off, more or less?

Mike86

Eddie is quite a bit different than he is in the comics. This Eddie is more of a loser journalist/YouTube type vlogger as opposed to the big bully type reporter character from the comics. Venom itself is kinda like the comics only it stupidly identifies itself as a loser on its home planet like Eddie I mean it looks like Venom minus the spider logo and acts like Venom sorta, but it has completely different motivations than the comic version. This character wants to save the Earth and is essentially an anti-hero, which I guess Venom has been in the comics but the film’s portrayal is still different.

B5Erik

So...

...not really Venom. Kind of, sort of, similar to Venom, but not really Venom. Is that about right?

(Wait - the symbiote admits to being a loser on it's home planet? WTF???)

Draven

I...I think I kinda liked it. It’s funnier than I expected and the various ways Venom manifests his powers are pretty creative. I’d be totally up for a sequel.

DJariya

It wasn't terrible as most were predicting or some reviewers were saying. Riz Ahmed (Riot?) was kind of an underwhelming villain though.

I kind of enjoyed it. The Venom and Brock banter was often times very funny. Overall, it had a very B movie quality to it, but with better special effects.

The bonus scene with Harrelson teasing that he's Carnage was underwhelming though. I would have preferred seeing him change or something.

The 2nd bonus scene was really just an extended teaser for Spider-Man into the Spider-Verse. Great looking animation, but it wasn't mandatory to watch.

I gave Venom 3 1/2 stars. Probably around a B-

Orbi-Wan Techno

Pretty close to the way I felt. Certainly NOT the train wreck others have said it is.

Mike86

Yeah it’s definitely a watchable movie just not a great one. It’s kind of like a B Marvel movie. Not up to the standards of the MCU but not as bad as the worst comic book films. Whoever tried comparing it to Catwoman is just trying to get a rise out of people. It’s definitely not that bad or as bad as something like Batman & Robin, Jonah Hex, or Green Lantern either. It’s cornball and feels fifteen years dated in some aspects but it could have been way, way worse.

Dr. Mantle

Just about every superhero movie ever has changed a few details from what was in the comics.

This is WAAAAY more true to what Venom is than that Tohper Grace crap.

Mike86

I don’t know about that. This movie maybe captures the essence of Venom a bit better in terms of how it looks and acts but the Topher Grace version is actually close to comic accurate. His character was just very rushed into Spider-Man 3 and not well done. At least that followed the comics more in that the symbiote attaches itself to that version of Eddie once Peter rejects it. Still not a good portrayal and I do like this movie more (for what it is at least) in first viewing. Venom in the Raimi universe needed to be its own film and not anothe added subplot to an already bloated film.

brayzie

This actually sounds fun. I saw some more clips, and the exchanges between Brock and the symbiote sound come across well.

Draven

It works WAY better than I expected it to.

B5Erik

No, it's not. Venom's SOLE reason for being was his/it's hatred of Peter/Spidey. The backstory is 110% different, and the character's motivation is 110% different.

He may behave similarly to how he did in the comics, but it isn't the same character.

Dr. Mantle

So what's you take on Tom Holland's Spider-Man? Where's Uncle Ben and the crook who killed him after Peter let him walk away? I don't remember comic book Spidey being mentored by Tony Stark.

I guess that's not Spider-Man, either.

stingermck

Earth 2