Venom (2018)

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, Stenbeck said:

Michelle Williams is too talented to be in this. Her only job was to turn on the screeching audio in a plaid skirt.

Yeah, unfortunately the pay scale for dark indies aren't that great, and she's gotta keep her lifestyle up somehow. I doubt her Dawson's Creek residuals are that great.

[johntfs]

On 10/8/2018 at 12:06 AM, Blissfool said:

Just saw this. Would it be wrong for me to ask for a refund?

Things that made me go "hmmmmm?":

- why was Venom okay with Annie driving Eddie to the hospital? Surely he would deduce that the purpose of the hospital visit is to eliminate him.

- why does Venom tell Eddie that fire and MRI radio waves are his kryptonite?  Venom really has no trust issues!

- why do they use the term "kryptonite?" Isn't it a fictional DC Universe term?

- why did I ever think TH was attractive? Those teeth!

In the order they appeared, my answers are:

1) Venom figured he could handle whatever whatever the delicious monkey creatures could throw at him.

2) Venom told about those conditions as things to avoid so Eddie wouldn't be separated from the only thing that gave Eddie a modicum of success - Venom.  Like, "You should avoid certain sounds as well as fire lest you turn back into the pathetic meat-sack you were before I found and bonded with you."

3) "Krytonite" is used in this real, actual world that has no Superman as well.  "Models and cocaine were Charlie's Sheen's kryptonite."  The idea that Superman (and Batman and Wonder Woman) are comic book/movie characters in the movie's world is perfectly okay.

4) No clue on that one except that Tom Hardy throws himself totally into the characters he portrays.  So cuts a handsome figure as a dream-spy in Inception (and an actual spy in This Means War.  Meanwhile, he can reduce/eliminate that handsomeness to portray down-on-his-luck, ethically (and hygienically) challenged Eddie Brock.

For my part, I kind of liked that they re-imagined the Venom origin without Spider-man.  Venom's fixated hate toward Spider-man made him/them seem like a whiny bitch consumed by envy and rejection. 

I have to admit that while Hardy did a good enough job as Brock, I was kind of hoping he'd channel some of James Keziah Delany from Taboo.  "We have a use for you." *Chomp*

Edited October 9, 2018 by johntfs

[IOU Payne]

I loved the movie. It was so much fun, and I am a sucker for quippy lines, which this film had in abundance. Now, the bad news:  I went into it as a blank slate (meaning not only spoiler-free, but I wasn't really sure who Venom was.)  I was surprised to learn after the fact that he's a villain in the Spideyverse.  Oh well...

[dkb]

Count me in the "It's a fun movie" camp. Towards the end I'm sure I had a WTF look morphed with a crazy grin because it was so stupid yet so entertaining.

Can't say that Tom Hardy didn't go for it, cause he did.

[dusang]

Just saw it -- there were a few laughs but it was SO STUPID.

Venom's 180 in character motivation, Michelle Williams' entire look (the atrocious wig & schoolgirl kilt? WTF?), the terrible effects where you could not understand the action, the investigative journalist using his unencrypted phone to leave a voicemail on his source's office line, the gaping plot holes...

I acknowledge that Tom Hardy gave it his all in a trash B-movie way.

What a waste.

[Silver Raven]

On 10/8/2018 at 8:05 PM, Stenbeck said:

I don't follow comic books, what was the post credit scene about?

That was the mid credits scene.  The post credits scene was an extended clip from Into the Spider-Verse.

[MisterGlass]

Saw it today.  I'm a sucker for the occasional B movie and this worked for me on that level.  A reviewer I like compared it to a campy mid-90s Sam Raimi movie, and I have to agree.  I didn't read Spiderman so I don't have much history with Venom, and maybe that helps.  I didn't like Spiderman 3 for a number of reasons, and I think this was better than that low bar.

I feel like they were 60% of the way to a really good movie.  Tom Hardy was good (his ticks usually work for me, but YMMV), and he went all in on the crazy.  I liked that Eddie Brock was an impulsive screw up who was justly dumped and fired.  The relationship with Venom was surprisingly interesting.  Annie had her moments, though there were a couple times where she could have been a more assertive character.  I didn't mind Riz Ahmed as the bad guy. I thought he was appropriate for a silicon valley tech villain, but the plot and the dialogue tipped him too far toward mad scientist.  The symbiote effects were decent, especially when they were outside of a host.  They were creepy, moving slime mold things.

The movie needed some more supporting character development, a little more plot logic, and a little less car chase/symbiote chase action.  It's not great cinema but it's more entertaining to me than, say, a Michael Bay Transformers.

[johntfs]

On 10/9/2018 at 7:00 AM, IOU Payne said:

I was surprised to learn after the fact that he's a villain in the Spideyverse.

That's a bit complicated.  In truth, Venom may well be a villain in current comic canon.  I don't know because I haven't kept up with it.  That said, while Venom started as a Spider-man villain, he eventually morphed into more of an anti-hero.  While he and Spidey never really became friends as such, they did occasionally team up to deal with mutual threats,.

Edited October 14, 2018 by johntfs

[MisterGlass]

Forgot to mention it earlier, but I feel like there is some version of this movie where Venom eats Annie's cat.  I'm opposed to cat harm, but it seemed like they were setting that up because the cat recurred and because Eddie didn't like the cat.  I was bracing myself for it, and then it didn't happen. 

There were several places where I felt like things were started and then dropped.  I saw an article that the movie was cut down quite a bit, and maybe that's why.

[Wynterwolf]

[raven]

On 10/12/2018 at 10:40 PM, dusang said:

Michelle Williams' entire look (the atrocious wig & schoolgirl kilt? WTF?)

I was distracted by that awful wig every time she was on screen.  People get paid good money to make terrible decisions, apparently.  She was also a dull character (not the actress's fault, really) and I was much more interested in Jenny Slate's Dr. Skirth and was hoping she would make it through the movie.  I also saw more chemistry with her and Eddie than with MW's character and Eddie.  Oh well.

On 10/13/2018 at 10:12 PM, MisterGlass said:

I feel like they were 60% of the way to a really good movie.  Tom Hardy was good (his ticks usually work for me, but YMMV), and he went all in on the crazy.  I liked that Eddie Brock was an impulsive screw up who was justly dumped and fired.  The relationship with Venom was surprisingly interesting. 

I agree with this.   It was realistic that Eddie would be a sad sack after being fired and blacklisted (though it got a boring and went on too long); I liked the Eddie/Venom relationship.  However there were some really odd editing choices - I'm guessing there were more Eddie/Venom bonding scenes; Venom's decision to betray his species "because of Eddie" came out of nowhere; Venom referring to himself as a loser like Eddie (though Eddie appeared to be successful until the blacklisting) could have been explored more.  We could have used some time trimmed off the long first chase sequence or Eddie being a sad sack for more bonding.

The quips worked with "let's bite off their heads and pile them in a corner" "why" "pile of bodies, pile of heads" being a good start, heh. 

Riz Ahmed was an effective villain - intelligent, charming, amoral.  Good job there.  The symbiote creatures slithering around when outside of a host were effective and creepy; though the full-on Eddie/Venom creature still looked bad. 

[BetterButter]

[BetterButter]

[shrewd.buddha]

We rented this with very low expectations, just looking for entertainment/action.

It works ... sort of .. as a comedy. Tom Hardy's character came off a frazzled, recovering drug addict before and after the symbiote merge. Michelle Williams' character did not work for a lot of reasons as mentioned by others.
And with no heroes, was the aim of the movie to feature the least worst villain?

The lowest point of movie was the symbiote-on-symbiote battle. That may as well have been an animated movie. With no established understanding of what the creatures' differences were or shape-forming capabilities , it felt like nonsense. 
And isn't Venom (as implied by the name) supposed to have spider-like characteristics? Without a Spider-Man reference, I did not see any. 

Edited January 6, 2019 by shrewd.buddha

[Chas411]

I really enjoyed it. I expected it’s to Be brutal but it wasn’t. I think Hardy embraced it and because of that the movie wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Williams character was bland but not unlikeable.

Ed Norton amen Liv Tyler’s Hulk isn’t still the cringiest Marvel film I’ve ever seen. Venom for me while not great was still not as bad as Hulk.

[blueray]

I finally watched this movie. I honestly liked it of course I was going in knowing how decisive it was at the time as well as knowing some things a head of time. The best part was the Eddie and Venom part as those scenes were the most entertaining. I think Eddie's character did make sense, he was a decent journalist who had a successful show, however wasn't the best at his job and often jumped into things without thinking things through (and we see this in the movie multiple times). The love interest was okay, though I do agree her wig was pretty bad and unnecessary. The first half of the movie was slow and took awhile to get going.

Lastly, it was a surprise to see Stan Lee, I forgot he did a cameo for this movie.