Venom

[Head Gardener]

I went into Cineworld with my lad as happy as Larry to see this the other night, but after 30 minutes he decided he'd seen enough and wanted to leave.
I still can't work out if he thought it was rubbish or it was a bit too freaky for him, but I'll go back on Sunday night to see it again as I was just getting into it.
The reviews have been pretty grim so far though, but to be honest I'd rather sit through the first chunk of it again than see that Star Is Born thing with Lady Gaga.

[samadriel]

I found this more entertaining than I expected.  It's often amusing, and that 'turd in the wind' bit from the trailer that we were remarking on in the other Venom thread is thankfully not the typical quality of the dialogue. It was a slow build, and I was pining for a bit more symbiote action early on, but once he's become Venom, it doesn't let up.  It's not really memorable, but I had a bit of a chuckle.

[Head Gardener]

ahh my apologies for not posting in the other thread, I couldn't find it, I did look, honest!

[surreal]

I'm in two minds about this, I had tickets to see it this morning in Cineworld but couldn't be arsed going (have an unlimited card so doesn't really matter).  Might tag it on to the end of my "First Man" and "Bad Times at the El Royale" double bill next Friday instead.

Be interested to hear other reviews who actually made it all the way through the film...

[Spiteface]

For 2 hours, I was entertained. That's all that matters to me with most films.

Also, there's a mid-credits scene setting up a sequel, and if you still don't need to piss, a little snippet of that CGI Into the Spider-Verse movie that looks like it would be fun.

[Shit Good Nose]

Heard Kermode's review and he thought it was a complete mess, but in some ways more entertaining than most of the Marvel and DC films because it's so different.

[Enrico Palazzo]

It's often amusing, and that 'turd in the wind' bit from the trailer that we were remarking on in the other Venom thread is thankfully not the typical quality of the dialogue.

I thought that was typical of the rest of Venom's dialogue. Still quite enjoyed it though. Tom Hardy goes all in.

[worldsgreatestsinner]

I thought the film was a fucking mess. The plotting and character development is so thin that neither Ahmed or Williams get a thing to do and certain character decisions late in the film make absolutely zero sense. Also Fleischer can't shoot an action sequence for shit. But Hardy is so good and so likeable that it's always entertaining,

[Gregory Torso]

There was a bomb scare at the station yesterday (turned out someone had done a big poo on a bus and all the police had to come and look at it) so I couldn't get home for ages, went into the cinema and ended up watching this. Like any Marvel comics bullshit film, you start to get angry if you actually try and pay attention to what's meant to be happening, but it was enjoyable enough. Kind of like an edgelord's version of The Mask. Ridiculous bendy cgi jumping man and utterly incomprehensible motivations for characters. Passed the time. The buses were running again by the time I came out.

[biggytitbo]

Forget all that, tell us more about the poo on the bus please.

[AsparagusTrevor]

"The buses were running again by the time I came out."
Gregory Torso - Cookd and Bombd

[Gregory Torso]

Forget all that, tell us more about the poo on the bus please.

I believe it was in a plastic bag, so not totally anarchy, but the old girls around the police cordon were describing it as "monumental".

[Glebe]

Went to see it yesterday just because I fancied going to the pictures. It was absolute ludicrous gubbins of course, but like samadriel I found myself enjoying it way more than I expected. But yeah no it's bobbins.

[Dr Rock]

I hope it is bobbins, as some of you make not know, despite carrying a MARVEL logo at the front, this is nothing to do with all those good Marvel Studios movies. Like, if they were in the last Avengers, their movies are made by Marvel Studios, and those movies are mostly good because head honcho Kevin Feige knows what he's doing.

Sony owns Spider-Man and is why we got those shitty Spideys with Andrew Garfield. Now Marvel have done a deal to make Spider-Man films, so he can join play with the Avengers and not suck balls, and Sony is looking at the success of Venom to see whether they can make films from characters they still own outright - like Kraven The Hunter, Electro (again), Doc Ock (again), etc. It really would be better if these films bombed so Marvel Studios could get back all the rights, as they have with the FF and X-Men. Unless you've always wanted an Aunt May movie (it was on the cards at one point).

Previously Deadpool and the X-Men movies were at FOX, which was patchy, but not Disney owns them so expect them to appear in future Marvel Studios films. With Dr Doom being the big baddie alongside Silver Surfer and Galactus.


I shan't be seeing Venom, I never liked the character anyway.

[Mister Six]

The MCU films are very competent but also quite predictable - I quite like the talk of Venom being more like a pre-MCU film in its slightly more knockabout style. At this point I'd happily take that over more factory-produced MCU fare, even if their films are more polished.

[colacentral]

Yeah maybe but not by Sony.

[saltysnacks]

Does Tom Hardy get his top off in this?

[Brundle-Fly]

Only one Venom (1981) movie in my book. It's very becoming.

[Mister Six]

I'm friends with the daughter of the bloke who wrote the screenplay for that. He also did Wait Until Dark. Where's that "crap claims to fame" thread...?

[SavageHedgehog]

Yeah maybe but not by Sony.

Yeah, I did enjoy this for the generalised 90s nostalgia and as a bit of tacky fun, but any merit it has for falling outside of the MCU formula is undercut by it being part of the slightly less homogenous but far less competent sausage factory of Sony event films which all feel like they're shooting directly from a first draft. (What they actually mostly do is edit them down to the point that they feel rushed and incomplete) Wasn't as stylish as I hoped either; Fleischer's big vision seems to consist of using a lot of tubular lighting in the laboratory scenes. Still I did enjoy it, and it is indeed just distinctive enough that I'm personally more likely to give it another watch than most of the MCU films. I did quite enjoy the Garfield/Webb Spider-Menses, and while this was worse in many respects, it was better in the crucial aspect of withholding on overt sequel/franchise baiting for films that may or may not actually happen until the mid-credits scene.

[Dr Rock]

Have Sony made any good movies? What's their best movie?

[SavageHedgehog]

Isn't it you that's particularly keen on This is the End? That aside some of their animation studio's films are decent, particularly the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I thought critics were a little too kind with the Jumanji rebootquel and that the level of its commercial success wasn't really deserved, but it's watchable and quite fun, as is the first Goosebumps (though you can sense a better movie trying to escape).

[Dr Rock]

Oh they made This Is The End? Or just played a part.. Anyway all is forgiven, best comedy movie of the last ten years. And I see they also made American Hustle. But the rest is dogmuck.

[Mister Six]

Both Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs films are excellent. The livehaction stuff is almost all awful though.

[colacentral]

Yeah, I did enjoy this for the generalised 90s nostalgia and as a bit of tacky fun, but any merit it has for falling outside of the MCU formula is undercut by it being part of the slightly less homogenous but far less competent sausage factory of Sony event films which all feel like they're shooting directly from a first draft. (What they actually mostly do is edit them down to the point that they feel rushed and incomplete) Wasn't as stylish as I hoped either; Fleischer's big vision seems to consist of using a lot of tubular lighting in the laboratory scenes.

That's a Sony hallmark: the cheap set design. The first Amazing Spider-Man had cheesy lab stuff with cannisters of luminous ooze and a garish colour palette and it all looked very cheap and 90's, like Ninja Turtles 2 or Power Rangers: The Movie.

[Small Man Big Horse]

This is now available and I quite enjoyed it, it's without doubt incredibly silly but the action sequences are fun and once Hardy's venom-ised it moves at a decent pace. I'm glad I didn't pay to see it but watching it from the comfort of my bed I've no real complaints.

[Mango Chimes]

The 'break from the norm' thing isn't really a breath of fresh air, so much as a breath of stale air. I'm not sure what particular elements make it feel so very 1990s as people have noted, but Christ it does. It's quite bad, but bad in an older sort of way. The plot's a lazy mess and the only person given anything to do is Hardy.

That said, surprisingly funny – Venom the character, speaking to Brock, has quite a few funny lines. It's a bit weird on that front, feeling like there's some tension between going Deadpool dark comedy (but better, because less smug / no Ryan Reynolds) and pulling back on the darkness and being determinedly bloodless (Venom literally eats three people, with no gore and a confusing approach to morality as Brock is otherwise a clean hero).

Shame it suggest the sequel will go directly into another bad-guy-is-the-exact-same-as-the-good-guy-but-eviler story.