Movie: Venom (2018)

All the spoilers all the time. You have been warned!

My Thoughts While Watching:

I saw this with Al on 11/10/2018. I know, I know. January is my catch-up month. No, not the favorite tomato topping of hot dogs and hamburgers. The actual “holy shit I have let my blog go” stuffs.

Ah, this is the guy Mander fancies…

There are some good action bits. CGI is solid.

I just feel like it does not flow well or maybe tie together well.

I chuckled thinking of the tagline “The world has enough Superheros.” Thank the baby cause they won’t find one, or a decent villain, here.

I had a hard time with the scientist lady’s part – would she get caught, wait no, wait yes. It aggravated me a bit.

At one point while he was a reporter, Hardy made me relate him to Gerard Butler in The Ugly Truth. Not sure why but I felt Gerard could’ve played this part as well or well or better than Hardy’s well.

They should’ve done more with Michelle Williams’ character. It just seems like she never fully formed as a character for me.

In the end, it was not the worst film I have ever seen. If it is on, late at night, on HBO and I cannot reach the remote, I would more than likely not exert the effort to get up and change the channel, knowing I was about to doze off anyway.

Did you see it? What did you think?

Some Interviews and Extra Video:

IMDB Synopsis: When Eddie Brock acquires the powers of a symbiote, he will have to release his alter-ego “Venom” to save his life.

Starring:

Lead Actress: Michelle Williams

Lead Actor: Tom Hardy

Supporting Female: Jenny Slate

Supporting Male: Riz Ahmed

Others of note: Woody Harrelson – CARNAGE

Director: Ruben Fleischer

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My ranking scores –

0-19 Levels of: Ugh

20-39 Levels of: Meh (aka I cannot reach the remote)

40-59 Levels of: I don’t hate it?

60-85 Levels of: That was solid.

86-100 Levels of: I Loved It!

I rank this movie a 62 on FB. But that was not according to this scale, it was just sort of off the cuff. By this scale I would rate it a 42!

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Trailer: I know it is not the real trailer but hot damn this is hilarious!

Additional Movie Info:

It received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 28% Rotten. It received a Rotten Tomato audience rating of 84% liking it. Average Rating: 4.2/5 with a number of User Ratings: 36,070.

Movie Reviews:

Specs: Release date: 5 October 2018 (USA) / Runtime: 112 minutes / Budget: $100M (really? no…really??)

IMDB Trivia

Tom Hardy’s son Louis Thomas Hardy is a fan of Venom, and Hardy took the role to please him: “I wanted to do something my son could watch. So I did something where I bite people’s heads off.” Louis also guided his father on how to appropriately portray Brock/Venom, since Hardy didn’t know the character very well.
Tom Hardy recorded his lines for the Venom symbiote during pre-production, and they were played back to the actor through an earpiece on set during scenes where Brock and the symbiote talk to each other.
The Venom symbiote recommends chocolate. According to the 1995 miniseries “Venom: The Hunger”, symbiotes need a chemical called phenethylamine which is available in brains, and chocolate.
Jameson, the astronaut who survived the crash in the opening sequence, is the son of J. Jonah Jameson, editor of the Daily Bugle and a public critic of Spider-Man.
John Jameson is the astronaut who survived the shuttle crash. In the Marvel comics he becomes Man-Wolf after finding the “Godstone” on the moon, which attaches to him similar to a symbiote.
Venom’s line “Eyes! Lungs! Pancreas! So many snacks, so little time!” comes from “Amazing Spider-Man” #374.
Ann reminds Eddie of his firing from the Daily Globe and his being forced to leave New York. In the Spider-Man comics, Eddie was a reporter for the Daily Globe, a rival newspaper of the Daily Bugle. In the comic, a serial killer known as the Sin Eater was going around and murdering people. Eddie interviewed a man who claimed to be the Sin Eater but, eventually Spider-Man caught the real Sin-Eater and it was discovered that the man Eddie interviewed was a compulsive confessor. Eddie was subsequently fired from his job because of this and shortly after becoming Venom moved to San Francisco.
The 2nd final film featuring a Stan Lee cameo to be released during his lifetime, before his death on November 12, 2018. His final cameo is in Avengers 4. He has already shot his scene.
The name of Brock’s apartment building, Schueller, after Randy Schueller, a Marvel Comics fan who in 1982 suggested the idea of giving Spider-Man a black costume. The costume would debut in 1984 and would later evolve into the concept of a sentient alien being, and later into a symbiote.
Emilio Rivera has appeared in both live action movies featuring Venom. In Spider-Man 3 he played a police officer and in Venom he was the security guard.
At the end of the last scene before the credits, a sign can be seen for Ron Lim Herbal. Ron Lim is an artist who worked on the first Venom solo series.
When Eddie is going through Anne’s emails, there is an email from someone named “Bodhi”. Riz Ahmed played a character named Bodhi in Rogue One.
Principal photography began in October 2017, taking place in Atlanta, New York City, and San Francisco.
Though hints of the character had appeared earlier, Venom’s grand introduction into the comics was in “The Amazing Spider-Man” #299 and #300. These comics also established Venom’s weaknesses to fire and sonic waves.
The first part of the Creative Closing Credits has graphics in black and white, the traditional colors of Venom, with a few moments of black and red, the colors of Carnage.
The prison Eddie visits is also the same prison used in the CW’s Arrow-verse as Iron Heights Penitentiary.
The filmmakers cite the Venom comic storylines “Lethal Protector” (Venom becomes a vigilante guardian hero for San Francisco) and “Planet of the Symbiotes” (Earth is invaded by an army of symbiotes) as an influence on the film.
WILHELM SCREAM heard when Venom throws a SFPD SWAT officer from over the office building lobby’s railing.
Cletus Kasady is introduced writing the message “Welcome Eddie” onto the bars of his cell with his own blood while waiting for Eddie to arrive. His first comics appearance as Carnage had him do the same with his victim’s, with the words “Carnage Rules!” scrawled on the walls of the crime scene.