Venom (2018) / YMMV

Adorkable:
- Eddie's self-esteem went down with his reputation, yet he manages to come across as nothing short of kind towards pretty much anyone not affiliated with the Life Foundation.
- The Venom symbiote is also this as well, having a genuinely cheerful and lively nature, especially with the excitement it shows after putting down the men that were sent to Eddie’s apartment to take them back, with it saying that they should bite all their heads off and put them in the corner after making short work of them, much like a child putting toys to one side after deciding to pull the toys' heads off.
And You Thought It Would Fail: In spite of many negative reviews from mainstream critics and derisive, vitriolic opinions aimed at the movie (and Sony) for various reasons as soon as the project was announced and some even predicting a box office bomb fate akin to Catwoman (2004) or Fant4stic, Venom has shattered the box office opening record for the month of October (it held it until Joker came out the following year) and is sitting quite comfortably at an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. To put things into perspective: Budget: $100 million. Total box-office gross: $213-some million domestically and $642 million in foreign markets (with China spectacularly standing out), adding up to a worldwide gross of $855+ million, fairly close to the revenue Spider-Man: Homecoming received, and on a much lower budget than Homecoming to boot. The film ended up grossing more worldwide and being more profitable than either of the two entries of The Amazing Spider-Man Series, which had monstrous budgets and low box office returns by comparison.
Alternative Character Interpretation:
- Anne says in the ending that She-Venom kissing Eddie was the symbiote's idea. The motivation for that counts as this: whether Venom itself wanted to kiss Eddie, or have Anne kiss Eddie as part of the "win her back scheme". Also, is Anne telling the entirety of the truth? Did Venom force her to kiss Eddie, which seems a bit out of character for the symbiote, or did Venom suggest the kiss and Anne went along with it for her own reasons?
- Eddie did a lot of shady stuff to advance his own career. It's implied that he was run out of New York because no one would hire him due to his reckless disregard for any rules or tact, and he got not only himself but his girlfriend fired from their lucrative jobs in San Francisco because of his irresponsible journalism. On the other hand, he refused to be threatened into silence by his boss because a Corrupt Corporate Executive didn't like him poking around his secret experiments, and went ahead with his original plan to out Drake's human experimentation.
  - How important is it to the viewer that Eddie stole confidential information from his fiancée? Did potentially breaking the story about putting vulnerable people at risk during experiments make that justifiable?
- Was the Blue Symbiote’s death (after it killed Dr. Skirth) really an accident due to negligence on the part of the two scientists who were supposed to be supervising it, or did they let it die on purpose after seeing firsthand just how far over the edge Drake had gone?
- Is Venom really pulling a Heel–Face Turn because he's come to like Earth and Eddie, or did he simply decide he'd be better off as the sole symbiote on Earth rather than sharing it with millions of other, stronger symbiotes?
- Does Riot have any intention of sticking with Carlton, or is he simply using him because he's a convenient host at the moment that he'll dispose of as soon as that changes? While it's clear Riot plans to be the one in charge, Carlton has such hatred for humanity that he seems totally fine with Riot's plan, and Riot doesn't simply take full control like he does his other hosts, even after Carlton's personality is no longer strictly necessary.
Applicability: The film can quite easily be seen as the delusions of a schizophrenic man who finally lost his grip on reality after one bad day - Eddie acts strangely even before bonding with the symbiote, eventually starts hearing and talking to a voice no-one else hears, while his friends take notice of his bizarre behaviour and start worrying about his mental health. He starts seeing the shady Dr. Drake as a full-blown villain bent for human extinction, imagines himself as a superpowered being who keeps beating off the Big Bad's goons coming after him, and eventually even the ex-girlfriend whom he misses comes back to him.
Ass Pull: Venom surviving the explosion of the Life Foundation rocket and still being bonded with Eddie even after separating from him and saying goodbye. It's never established whether or not Symbiotes only need a miniscule part of themselves in a host to survive and neither this film (nor its sequel) ever explains Venom's survival at all.
Awesome Music:
- The music from the teaser trailer, "Life in Being", perfectly captures the feeling of darkness Venom brings, yet its heroic later tones show how Eddie and Venom are, at their cores, heroes.
- Eminem's song for the movie, "Venom", is simply badass.
- JT Music also dedicated a rap song to the movie, "No Hero".
Best Known for the Fanservice: The infamous scene of Eddie kissing Venom became a talking point incredibly quickly. What most didn't talk about at the time it came out is that it's also a kiss with Anne, as she's taking the role of She-Venom for a short period of time.
Common Knowledge: While the "Sym-BEE-Yote" pronunciation is commonly used in Marvel adaptations, one of the trailers opted to go with "Symb-EYE-Yote", which many fans see as being completely wrong. However, the latter pronunciation is still considered as phonetically-correct as the one used in most other Marvel adaptations.^note
Complete Monster: Both halves of the Big Bad Duumvirate:
- Dr. Carlton Drake is the CEO of Life Industries with a god complex. Coming into possession of the symbiotes, Drake experiments with homeless people, having them attached to and devoured by the symbiotes in massive numbers to learn how to control them, even using the Symbiote to murder a doctor who assists Eddie Brock. When he merges with the Symbiote Riot, Drake eagerly embraces his newfound power and assists Riot in killing all in his path, intending to bring the Symbiotes to devour all humanity to satisfy his ego.
- The Riot symbiote is the "team leader" of the planned symbiote invasion force coming to Earth, and one of the four symbiotes brought back to Earth by the Life Foundation. Riot escapes, surfing from host to host and eating them alive from the inside-out—with two of his hosts being an old woman and a little girl—while leaving a slew of slaughtered innocents behind him. Riot bonds to Carlton Drake in the climax to send out a probe to bring the rest of his kind to Earth and allow them to feed on all humanity, massacring the entirety of Drake's staff when he's informed there may be a delay. Riot is apathetic to the death of even the other symbiotes who died in Carlton Drake's care, and decides to even kill Venom when he goes renegade.
Creepy Awesome: Venom. An eight-foot-tall alien with huge, sharp teeth and an elongated tongue, with a deep, gravelly voice, and also eats people alive? Scary. The fact that he also kicks ass, takes names, and gives his host superpowers? Awesome.
Creepy Cute: Whilst Venom himself is rather awesome and scary-looking... he's also weirdly adorable for an Anti-Hero protagonist, especially with it telling Eddie that they should bite the heads off of the soldiers that came to retrieve it and pile them in the corner, and when it takes over Anne Weying, it decides to kiss Eddie even though it could have transferred back to him any other way, which makes Venom even more adorable, since it shows that it cares about Eddie despite its violent nature, and also cares about Anne as well, with it declaring that it’s going to bring Eddie and Anne back together again, which is pretty adorable.
Critical Backlash: The movie receiving mostly negative critical reception, with many comparing it to superhero stinkers from the early 2000's like Daredevil (the theatrical cut) or Catwoman, arguably did it a favour, as it caused a large chunk of the audience to go in with very low expectations. However, many moviegoers saw the movie as So Okay, It's Average, with a lot of genuinely entertaining scenes, and they jumped to the movie's defense instead.
Critical Dissonance:
- While Venom has been largely panned by critics, the general audience likes the film, with an 80% audience score contrasting the critics' 29% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The IMDb score is also fairly high, with mostly 6-7 votes, and reviews stating that the movie is at least watchable instead of a full-on disaster.
- This also exists to an extent within the broader audience reaction. Comic fans of both Spider-Man and Venom generally take issue with the gratuitous alterations made by the film to exclude Spider-Man, while casual viewers unfamiliar with the comics don't have any context for those changes, and thus it doesn't matter to them. It's a similar situation to the Mandarin debate from Iron Man 3, in that those who only know the movies aren't bothered by the changes they don't know exist, while fans who do know the comics have major issues with what they perceive as an inferior representation of a well-liked character.
Critic-Proof: Despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics and Spider-fans, Venom blew away already-optimistic box office projections of a $60-70 million domestic opening weekend by doing $81 million ($205 million internationally) instead. When considering its budget of only $100 million, it turned quite a nice profit, unlike some of Sony's previous efforts. It ended up grossing $856 million worldwide.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- Judging from how often she pops up in fanfics, a lot of the fandom really likes Mrs. Chen. Even though she's a minor character in the opening and epilogue of the film, she's often given a more prominent role as an ally to Venom and Eddie. The studio took note of this, resulting in her appearing not only in the sequel, but getting a surprise cameo in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
- Dr. Dan Lewis, Anne's new boyfriend, is very well-liked for being nice to Eddie and never once getting jealous over Anne's past relationship. A lot of movies with this romantic plot point see the ex's new paramour put into an antagonistic role, so the fact that Dan actually likes Eddie and tries to help him out is a welcome change. While Dan's profession as a doctor is sometimes used as a justification for his kindness to the infected Eddie, fans still liked how he is portrayed nonetheless.
- She-Venom has won a lot of male following, despite her brief appearance, She-Venom became famous here thanks to being Ms. Fanservice, for her very curvy shape and very well-formed figure just like her comic counterpart, despite the monstrousness of the head. She achieves a Big Damn Heroes moment, when she rescues Eddie and they shares an iconic kiss scene. And, hey, you know she swallows.
- Dr. Dora Skirth also has a decent amount of fans, to the point that there has been many a Fix Fic written of her surviving and bonding with the blue symbiote that Drake sicced on her.
Epileptic Trees:
- The fan theory that Life (2017) is a Stealth Prequel to this movie, partially fueled by the fact that the movie recycles a minor shot from Spider-Man 3, which was Venom's debut in live action.
- Fans came up with tons of theories (of varying quality) about how the symbiote could be introduced to the MCU should the film not do well and Marvel would get the rights back, assuming that the film would flop (and be of poor quality in general), despite Word of God stating that the MCU Spider-Man will fight villains that he hasn't faced in the previous films.
- With the news that Ron Cephas Jones would be in the film, some suspected it would be as his Luke Cage (2016) character Bobby Fish, who was last seen headed to California to see his daughter, as even if Sony isn't ready yet to fully attach their films to the MCU (or rather, even if the MCU isn't ready to fully attach their films to Sony), sharing a minor character like Bobby could be their way of testing the waters for it.
Evil Is Cool:
- Venom, although it's downplayed here, as he's a Nominal Hero rather than outright villain.
- Unlike his host Drake, Riot just oozes utter badass, being both an incredibly competent fighter and an effective leader, and damn terrifying at that. His Creepy Awesome look certainly helps.
Fan Nickname: Due to the infamous "See The Movie" tagline, some have jokingly referred to the movie as Venom: See The Movie as if that's what it's actually called.
Fandom Rivalry:
- Between fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and potential fans of Sony's proposed Marvel setting, rather unsurprisingly. There's also a different kind of rivalry between fans who want Venom to be integrated into Marvel's setting (mostly from Marvel Studios fans who like the way the movie looks) and those who want it kept as far from Marvel Studios as possible (either from the camp of non-Marvel Studios Marvel movie fans who would prefer this movie series goes with more tonally-distinct and R-rated projects in the future, or from Marvel Studios fans who fear that the movie looks bad and would risk tarnishing Marvel's brand with a crossover).
- There is also one between Marvel Studios fans and some Venom fans, as those Venom fans are generally excited for the movie thanks to Venom being an anti-hero here, and the movie being influenced by the fan-favorite storyline Lethal Protector and to a lesser extent Planet of the Symbiotes. Suggesting that the movie will bomb on the Venom Site's Reddit page is an easy way to get yourself downvoted. However, there are just as many Venom fans who take issue with the film and its many alterations to the character, and feel that Marvel Studios would probably do a better job.
- Fans of the sci-fi action film Upgrade don't think of this movie very fondly given the fact they share incredibly similar premises, Empowered Badass Normal protagonists with penchants for Black Comedy (who also coincidentally look very alike), and the fact this movie was a box office success but received negative critic reviews while Upgrade received better reviews from both critics and audiences but received less attention. Another common criticism is that Venom wasn't as violent as some of the comics, while Upgrade didn't hold back.
- And now with (of all things) the Lady Gaga fandom. Gaga fans have been accused of flooding the Venom hashtag on Twitter with troll bot accounts giving negative reviews of Venom, since it came out the same weekend as Lady Gaga's new film A Star is Born.
- It has now gained one with a most... unexpected group; the adoring fanbase of serial murderer Ted Bundy. After Bundy's... admirers compared being attracted to Bundy, a real life killer, to being attracted to Venom in an attempt to argue it was a totally normal and common thing, fans of the Marvel character reacted incredibly negatively to the comparison for very understandable reasons.
- Now that the movie has been out for awhile, there is a rivalry forming over whether it would have been better if this movie and itss sequel had gone for the R rating. General fans bring up the successes of Logan and Deadpool (2016) and that the action may have been better unrestrained, however the Venom fandom disagrees, pointing out that Venom has never been that type of character in the comics, nor has his battles with Carnage.
Fanfic Fuel:
- The movie's release, success and the general audience's embracing of the title characters led to a fair bit of fanfics and fan art in which Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Tom Hardy's Venom interact with each other, like this one◊. Fans of the previous iterations of Spider-Man did the same with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. Even better, The Stinger of the sequel features Eddie and Venom being sucked into the MCU at an as-yet unknown time period, heavily suggesting they will actually meet and interact with each other. As of Spider-Man: No Way Home, while Tom Hardy's Venom doesn't remain in the MCU for long, and never meets Tom Holland's Spider-Man, a part of his symbiote does stay behind.
- With the critical acclaim and popularity of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, fans now have even more incentive and excuses to make Tom Hardy's Eddie and Venom cross over with other cinematic versions of Spider-Man.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Eddie/Venom has become incredibly popular amongst the fandom, being paired up together constantly despite Venom being an extraterrestrial blob of tar not confirmed capable of sexual reproduction.
Friendly Fandoms:
- With Zombieland, considering how Ruben Fleischer directed both films. The Stinger of Venom drives this even further when Woody Harrelson (another star of Zombieland fame) was teased to play Carnage in a potential sequel.
- With [PROTOTYPE], due to fans comparing how Venom's and Riot's transformation powers in the live-action film resemble a lot of Alex Mercer's moves and abilities from the game. Taking the plot of both titles into consideration, Venom can also be seen as a Spiritual Adaptation to [PROTOTYPE].
- With Kill la Kill, due to the basic premise being very similar to one another, and the fact that Venom’s Disney Death is almost exactly like Senketsu’s Heroic Sacrifice.
Genius Bonus: Combined with a Mythology Gag. At the end of the film, the symbiote asks Eddie to get it tater tots and chocolate. Both potatoes and chocolate contain phenylethylamine, the chemical the symbiote has to continuously subsist off of in the comics.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The movie did fine business domestically (grossing about twice its budget there, which is neither remarkable nor anywhere close to some box office bombs it was compared to), but somehow, it went bonkers internationally, especially in China and Russia.
Ham and Cheese: Tom Hardy's performance somehow alters between taking the role completely seriously and hamming it up in this kind of a fashion. One critic even said that Hardy was "basically remaking Jim Carrey's Liar Liar", while another joked that Hardy was looking to be the first actor to win an Academy Award and a Golden Raspberry Award for the same performance. This has actually contributed to the film's So Bad, It's Good reputation.
Ho Yay:
- Many film critics have pointed out how well the movie works as a Romantic Comedy that pairs Venom/Eddie.
- To promote the Venom December 2018 release to US Blu-ray and digital video, Sony released an official trailer that reimagines the entire film as a holiday rom-com between Eddie Brock and Venom. Amusingly, they didn't even have to employ any creative editing or drastically shuffle lines around; the trailer is just a handful of things that actually happened.
  "Two hearts become one"
I Knew It!: A number of fans guessed that Woody Harrelson was playing Carnage the moment his name was teased in connection with the project.
Just Here for Godzilla:
- A particularly odd example in that there's a degree of apathy toward the movie itself, as while some Venom fans are excited for the movie, there are some Venom fans that are generally suspicious of Sony Pictures or are Marvel Studios fans worried about Spider-Man's future in the MCU. However, there has simultaneously been some interest in the movie for specific visual effects. After the second trailer was released, many have said they don't actually care about the movie's story and writing all that much, but they will be willing to watch it just for the scenes with Eddie Brock fully-transformed into Venom, which look stunning.
- Several negative reviews say the film is still worth a look for Tom Hardy's completely bonkers performance, which included a good deal of improvising.
- When news got out that one of the film's stingers was an extended sneak peek at Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, people who were hyped for that movie went to see Venom just to see it.
LGBT Fanbase: In one case of winning an audience Sony was definitely not expecting or aiming for, LGBT fans immediately became quite fond of the movie because of romantic overtones in Eddie and Venom's relationship. Additionally, some nonbinary fans have started to perceive Venom as gender-fluid or gender-nonconforming thanks to the scene where he takes Anne's form while kissing Eddie.
Like You Would Really Do It: As if there was any chance of the titular symbiote dying near the end of the movie.
Memetic Mutation:
- Confused/Awkward Kevin Feige. ^Explanation
- Tom Hardy's starring role in the movie necessitated more Baneposting.
- "1:16" ^Explanation
- "When *insert*." ^Explanation
- The ladies of the Internet, especially on Tumblr, are going pretty wild over Venom's tongue. There are also responses remarking on how Venom is the successor to Tumblr's previous "sexy boy" obsession Pennywise. Others were offended that people even considered Pennywise, a Monster Clown with buck-teeth and a fivehead, close to Venom.
- "We... are Garbo"^Explanation
- News articles pointing out that the full Venom trailer has Venom in it, after the teaser infamously didn't show him off.
- Symb-EYE-Ote.^note
- The full trailer reusing the exact same song as an earlier trailer for Avengers: Infinity War has led to much mocking about Sony's infamous online reputation for a lack of originality, or otherwise cracking jokes about the company being so desperate to create a Shared Universe to rival the MCU that they went so far as to directly copy its music choices.
- "Kids love Venom!" ^Explanation
- "Like a turd in the wind."^Explanation
- "See The Movie" ^Explanation
- "Eddie Brock and Venom make out." ^Explanation
- Venom is the best superhero movie of 2003.^Explanation
- The shot of Eddie sitting in the lobster tank, either with amusing captions or just on its own (here's just one◊ example of the former).
- Venom is the best Romantic Comedy of 2018.^Explanation
- Venom and Ratatouille are the same movie.^Explanation
- 6 MONTHS? ^Explanation
Misblamed: A common excuse for some being against the movie, including the infamous 'boycott' post originating on Deviant Art, accuses Sony of trying to "steal" the rights away from Marvel by making this movie. What they seem to ignore is that Sony wanted to make the movie part of the MCU, and explicitly kept it PG-13 in order to allow Tom Holland's Spider-Man to crossover in the future, and it was purely Marvel who didn't want to be involved. On top of this, they seem to forget that this was part of the deal for returning Spider-Man, that Sony themselves get to make movies with the character's universe too. Basically, Sony gets accused of being greedy and underhanded when all they're actually doing is fairly making use of their side of the bargain.
Money-Making Shot:
- The shot of Eddie strapped to a medical table and screaming, which has gotten better with every trailer as more of the final effects during the scene have been added on.
- As of Trailer 3, this picture◊ of the Venom and Riot symbiotes being peeled off their hosts during their fight is now one.
Moral Event Horizon:
- As if the unethical treatments he approved and his threat towards Dr. Skirth's family didn't cross the line, Drake murdering Skirth with a Symbiote should do it. Even if you excuse that as Pragmatic Villainy, stopping, him eagerly getting on board with Riot's plan puts the nail in the coffin.
- If possessing and killing multiple innocents, including an elderly woman and a little girl, didn't confirm that Riot is too far gone, then his plan to enslave and massacre humanity should.
Narm: Plenty, as evidenced here.
Narm Charm:
- People who defend the movie commonly cite this trope as being the reason why they like it, which might not be all that surprising considering that the character of Venom is largely over-the-top to begin with, since that's kind of just how The Dark Age of Comic Books was. Many reviews state that it's often very hard to tell if a scene is actually supposed to be funny or is just Narm. If you're in the right mindset, it can be a blast.
- If it weren’t for Tom Hardy, the scene in the teaser of Eddie freaking out could’ve been much worse if given to a lesser actor. And it's not that the scene itself is poorly-acted, it's just the placement in the trailer and a lack of context that makes it seem goofy. Indeed, the actual trailer briefly revisits the moment, which looks significantly better with completed visual effects.
- While Eddie confronting the Big Bad about the allegations against him in public is indeed an incredibly stupid move for a seasoned journalist, it meshes well with the fact that comic book Eddie wasn't as good at his job as he believed to be. (Him losing his job in the comics was a result of him taking the confession of someone just claiming he was a famed serial killer without really corroborating it, with Spider-Man catching the real killer soon after.^note) It also kinda endears us to Hardy’s version by showing he does indeed care about the lives of people and is willing to put himself at risk for the sake of finding the truth. In the film itself, this incident follows after Eddie has just found out about the wrongful deaths and gotten an idea of the full extent of Carlton Drake's lack of concern for human lives, so his eagerness to confront him actually comes off as him being legitimately appalled at what he's found out and unable to conceal his rage.
- A lot of the dialogue in the trailer that's been derided, besides being from the comics, actually ends up being pretty in-character with Venom in the movie, as he maintains a fairly darkly comical personality. "A Turd in the Wind" for instance actually fits along the lines of how he's been talking throughout the movie.
No Such Thing as Bad Publicity: The movie became an internet meme for its dubious quality and being a naked cash grab for Sony. Nonetheless, the film still became a hit with many finding it entertaining in a So Bad, It's Good and/or So Okay, It's Average fashion. If anything, the quality of the final film only encouraged some audiences to go see it just so they can take the piss out of it.
Older Than They Think:
- While the design has been derided for the lack of the white spiders, there is a basis for this, as barring the covers of the initial Ultimate Spider-Man arc and the video game^note, Ultimate Venom lacks the white spider emblems.
- The slobbering all over the man's face, the symbiote's Venom-face forming on the end of his arm and the "turd in the wind" dialogue all are faithful to the comic version of Venom. In general, a lot of what's derided about the film is pretty par-the-course for the character.
- The "Eyes! Lungs! Pancreas! So many snacks, so little time!" line has gotten some snark for trying too hard to be edgy. Except, that line was actually in the comics◊.
One-Scene Wonder:
- She-Venom only appears for 20 seconds at most, but she simultaneously pulls off a Big Damn Heroes moment and proves that "sexy" and "possessed by the Symbiote" are not mutually exclusive in an iconic kissing scene.
- Goofy wig aside, Woody Harrelson does give a memorable short appearance as Cletus Kasady.
One True Threesome:
- Eddie/Anne/Venom became unexpectedly popular across the Internet after the film's release. Considering that during the infamous "Venom kiss" scene, Anne is wearing the symbiote, it's practically canon. It certainly helps that, when all is said and done, Eddie and Venom are kind of a package deal. And, while they're working out the difference between "I" things and "we" things, Venom seems to consider getting Anne back definitively a we thing.
- It's also popular to throw Anne's new boyfriend Dan into the mix for One True Foursome Polyamory, in light of Nice Guy Dan's genuine compassion toward Eddie, plus Dan and Eddie's complete lack of jealousy or resentment toward each other. One film critic discussed the movie as "surprisingly enough one of the best glimpses of how polyamorous relationships could be explored through genre exercise."
Opinion Myopia: As The Nostalgia Critic put it in his review, the film is mostly an average comic book movie occasionally bordering on So Bad, It's Good... if you're not a Spider-Man fan, many of whom are less forgiving of the movie than general audiences because of the unnecessary changes to the characters of Eddie Brock and Venom, none the least of which is the outright removal of Spidey himself.
Portmanteau Couple Name: "Symbrock" for Eddie Brock/the Venom symbiote. "Veddie" is sometimes used, though not as frequently.
Ship Mates: Eddie/Venom is by far the most popular ship in the fandom, meaning that Eddie's ex Anne and her new boyfriend Dan often get to stay together in fanfic, often acting as a foil Beta Couple to Symbrock.
Slow-Paced Beginning: The movie starts out primarily focused on how good Eddie's life is and what he does before he goes into a downward spiral after getting fired. By the time Eddie actually gets hooked up with the titular Symbiote, the movie is already about a third of the way through.
So Bad, It's Good: Many of the critics who were more forgiving of the movie saw it as this. While they didn't see Venom as a good movie, they did find it to be entertaining enough — for the wrong reasons — to be worth watching. Commonly cited issues/"perks" that contribute to this include a tonal shift between a slow, moody first half and a goofier second half (where the movie tries to insert self-aware humor into the mix, with mixed results), questionable dialogue throughout, the film itself feeling like it came from the meh side of early 2000s comic book movies (with Meg Downey of CBR even comparing it to Daredevil (2003), Hulk and Catwoman (2004)), and Tom Hardy giving a no-holds-barred Ham and Cheese performance that one reviewer compared to Nicolas Cage's infamously over-the-top performance in The Wicker Man (2006).
So Okay, It's Average: General audience consensus seems to be that the movie, while not exactly the greatest movie ever made, isn't overtly terrible either and that it has a lot of entertainment value to compensate. This is reflected in its Cinemascore (B+) and its IMDb rating (6.7).
Special Effect Failure:
- In the second trailer, some of the tendrils that shoot out of Eddie when he hasn't fully transformed look conspicuously digital — as does the flailing Tom Hardy in the shot where Eddie goes flying off his motorcycle mid-air. Some of this can presumably be blamed on the trailer having incomplete CGI shots, however.
- The CGI on the duel between Venom and Riot leaves quite a bit to be desired, mostly with Riot. Particularly glaring in that this is a night scene, as the low lighting in those kind of scenes usually help hide weaker CGI in big-budget movies. While it may work for the black symbiote Venom, Riot appears to be quite "shining" due to being silver.
- While not part of the movie, this ESPN-based promotional ad features some CGI shots that would be considered embarrassing in the early 1990s. The frame rate of the scene where Brock actually turns into Venom looks so sluggish that it resembles stop-motion, and it's abundantly clear in the "reaction" shots that he's been composited into the shot rather sloppily.
Spiritual Adaptation:
- Corporate espionage resulting in one of the guilty party bonding with something that allows him to create tendrils from his body and perform feats of superhuman strength? This Venom movie makes for a decent [PROTOTYPE] adaptation. Even before the full transformation scene, Venom once covered Eddie's arm with a thicker layer similar to Alex Mercer's Musclemass power. And the number of times Eddie's shown on a motorcycle (in addition to the obvious science experiment turned Phlebotinum Rebel Anti-Hero thing) also make it look more like a Darker and Edgier Kamen Rider than [PROTOTYPE] did (the actual movie even has a Transformation Sequence). And since Eddie and the symbiote can talk to each other and they have to fight similarly combined beings, it's also reminiscent of Parasyte which was like [PROTOTYPE] a few decades early.
- And then there are Riot's powers. Tentacles bursting out to impale everyone around, spikes bursting out of the ground, huge crescent blades perpendicular to the arms, and turning his fist into one large bludgeoning weapon... a deliberate Shout-Out to [PROTOTYPE]? Is Drake a fan of the game?
- An anti-hero protagonist with a malevolent empowering otherworldly Enemy Within that he refers to as a demon and talks down to him inside his head with a sinister voice? Manifests itself often as black Combat Tentacles and is capable of forming an armored appearance over top of him? Is this Venom, or the Darkness? There is even a moment in the film where Venom uses its tendril to rip a car door off its hinges and use it as a shield, a move the player can do in The Darkness II video game.
- A human bonds with a color-coded alien, who speaks to him, often recommending violence/murder as solutions to his problems, can hijack control over said human's body, and can turn their limbs into weapons. The color-coded aliens intend to invade, but our hero's alien decides to fight back against his Rank Scales with Asskicking superior? That sounds like the plot to a Blue Beetle movie.
Squick: Eddie going through the trash can and eating thrown-away chicken, then puking when he realizes what he's eating. Granted, it's not his doing, as Venom is the one causing his change in behavior, but its still a gross spectacle.
Strangled by the Red String: Non-romantic case (well, debatably non-romantic) with Eddie and the symbiote, as towards the end Venom declares that Eddie has motivated it into protecting Earth instead of enslaving it with Riot. While the two had some positive interactions, there wasn't really any bonding moments between the two to really explain why the symbiote likes him enough to protect his planet. Similarly when the symbiote is removed, Eddie is hurt to find out the symbiote was killing him, feeling betrayed by this revelation ("what happened to 'we'!?"), even though before this point, the two had mostly just struggled for control, and it hadn't really demonstrated anything to make Eddie believe it actually cared about him beyond a host.
Tainted by the Preview:
- The first teaser trailer was panned by fans across the Internet, as it didn't actually feature Venom himself. The overall consensus seems to be that it looked like a generic action-thriller that just happened to share a name with a Marvel character (which the trailer didn't even reveal, seeing as the movie was only advertised as V for some reason). Even acknowledging that principal photography had wrapped up right before the teaser was released, it's generally agreed upon that the teaser should've been released later when enough of CGI for Venom was finished, instead of making it feel like it was rushed out to screen with Black Panther.
- The actual trailer, while significantly better-received than the teaser, still has a significant number of detractors for its questionable dialogue (which isn't helped by Tom Hardy's dodgy "New Yorker" accent) and messy visual effects for Eddie's tendril attacks (although the latter may just be incomplete). However, most people have responded positively to the actual Venom transformation at the end.
- The announcement that the film would be PG-13 didn't sit well with fans who were hoping for a Darker and Edgier movie, who felt as though it's an attempt by Sony to get more people in the theater instead of actually committing to making the movie more violent.
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The apparent absence of the white spider on Venom's chest in the second trailer is a point of contention among fans of the character, and only further establishes the lack of an actual connection to the Spider-Man franchise that the character is dependent on. If it's merely out of frame, the trailer is sure bent on hiding it (and there is a shot of Eddie's full body mid-transformation where everything but his face and chest is covered in the symbiote). The second trailer proves that indeed, Venom's chest insignia is entirely missing, although some of the criticism was quelled thanks to Venom's design looking damn good even without the spider.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Many people were not impressed with the full trailer using the exact same song ("Redshift" by Audiomachine) as an earlier trailer for Avengers: Infinity War.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Four symbiotes are depicted in the film: a black one (Venom), a silver one (Riot), and two others, one blue and one yellow. While the yellow one was shown possessing a rabbit, and the blue one with Isaac the prisoner and later Dora Skirth, they were ultimately rejected by their hosts and eventually died, without anything as much as even a murderous Venom-bunny running amok. Even further, all four of these symbiotes bonded with their hosts, but the yellow one doesn't have its "transformation" sequence with the rabbit shown on-screen (only via a computer monitor simulation). Popular takes hold that it was done in order to avoid showing a cute animal being infected.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- What exactly was the silver symbiote up to for six months? Go on, say you wouldn't be interested in the wacky misadventures of this thing body-hopping around the world. The other glaring issue being brought up regarding this was that Riot's host didn't even change within the span of this Time Skip.
- Minor example: Venom has a large silver gash on his chest after pulling Riot's blade out of his chest before destroying Drake's rocket. Since Venom lacks his typical Chest Insignia as a result of Spider-Man being Adapted Out, it would have been the perfect opportunity to give Venom an awesome scar to serve as the movie's version of his symbol if he didn't heal himself within seconds.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: While not regarded as a perfect film by anyone, even its detractors have largely admitted that Tom Hardy basically holds the movie together with his teeth and sheer force of will. Especially when it turned out that many of the best and funniest moments in the movie were things that Hardy came up with on the spot.
Unexpected Character:
- Quite a number of viewers were shocked that Riot was the main villain, instead of Carnage - a far more well-known character in the comics, specifically the second most popular Klyntar/symbiote next to Venom.
- John Jameson's brief appearance was also surprising, although he has been associated with the Symbiotes reaching Earth in some adaptations.
- The Venom symbiote bonds with Anne Weying to become She-Venom long enough to reunite with Eddie Brock.
Visual Effects of Awesome: Eddie's actual transformation into Venom is as suitably nightmarish as one could hope for, and a clear recipient of where the movie's budget actually went. It also looks much larger than the Venom in Spider-Man 3, and sports much larger teeth and the trademark tongue. Later, an officially-released still◊ showing Venom smiling proved that Venom looking stunning wasn't a one-off.
What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?:
- The fact the film is rated PG-13 like most superhero movies might mean that some would assume Venom himself is toned down and his human-eating is Adapted Out. The film actually features them biting off a mooks head on screen, something the film directly acknowledges and draws attention to.
- The full version of Eminem's end credits theme is about as kid-friendly as the rest of his discography, with the "Music From The Motion Picture" album containing an "Explicit Lyrics" warning. The cut of the song that plays during the credits doesn't have any of the offending lines, however.
WTH, Costuming Department?:
- Woody Harrelson's Cletus Kasady wig is quite possibly the least convincing one made for a superhero movie since the one that Kate Mara wore for Sue Storm in the Fantastic Four (2015) reshoots. Thankfully, it's only on-screen for a few moments as he was only a brief Saved for the Sequel cameo.
- As pointed out by Honest Trailers, Michelle Williams wears a long wig, despite her typical short hair being a dead ringer for Anne's hair in the comics.
The Woobie:
- Eddie gets bad luck on his side all because he was genuinely doing the right thing to call Drake out on his experiments on homeless people. He gets fired, Annie ends her engagement with him, and for 6 months could not get any job at all, all the while having to deal with a rude neighbour next door who puts on loud music. He then gets bonded with a violent and aggressive alien symbiote while he was trying to free his friend Maria from callous human experimentation, then has to deal with it taking over at times, and its hunger as well.
- The Venom symbiote, though violent and aggressive, is implied to be this. It says to Eddie that it is an outcast on its home world, possibly due to the fact that it prefers to let its hosts to be in control instead of completely taking them over, and it can be reasonable and friendly. It doesn’t hurt anyone at all unless they attack it, it's honest to Eddie and Anne, and it cares about them and loves them to the point of planning to bring them together at some point.
- Maria, the poor homeless woman taken by the Life Foundation and forced to become Venom's host. She lives just long enough for Eddie to find her, let her out, and the symbiote to transfer from her to him, giving the audience yet more reason to hate Drake's guts.

YMMV / Venom (2018)

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