VENOM ’S reviews aren’t due out until tomorrow but critics have finally been allowed to tweet their reactions – and it’s not good news.
Although it’s due for release for later this week, there’s a strict review embargo up for ‘Venom’ that ends later tonight – however the embargo doesn’t extend to social media reactions, and they’ve been pretty negative so far.
While obviously full reviews are clearly a far better examination of a movie, not to mention actually seeing it yourself, these initial reactions do appear to be painting a picture that doesn’t exactly portend good news for Sony. Most of the reactions seem to point to a huge variance in tone, whilst some pointed out that the movie itself is far behind the curve on where superhero movies currently are.
Meanwhile, Tom Hardy’s performance was shown to be pretty weird, which tracks pretty much with behind-the-scenes footage we saw some time ago. Here’s a selection of tweets so far from US journalists who saw the movie at its world premiere in Los Angeles last night.
Significant chunks of #Venom don’t work *at all* but there is some serious charm to the Eddie/Venom relationship. Not sure I had the intended reactions to some scenes but fun is fun – even when it’s totally ridiculous, right? It’s too bad they didn’t go for the R rating though.
— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) October 2, 2018
Action-sequences and Eddie and Venom's odd relationship are the highlights of #Venom but if Sony wants to move forward with a universe, it needs to just keep the few parts that work and scrap the large portion which does t.
— Brandon Davis (@BrandonDavisBD) October 2, 2018
Social embargo for #Venom is up. I talk about this a lot in my review but this is a movie that somehow slipped through a wormhole from 2004. That's my biggest take. It's a movie that spilled from the pre-MCU era through a crack in time and space.
— The Mothmeg 🔜 NYCC (@rustypolished) October 2, 2018
Our review of ‘Venom’ goes live tomorrow morning, with the movie itself going on release the same day.
Social embargo for #Venom is up. I talk about this a lot in my review but this is a movie that somehow slipped through a wormhole from 2004. That's my biggest take. It's a movie that spilled from the pre-MCU era through a crack in time and space.
— The Mothmeg 🔜 NYCC (@rustypolished) October 2, 2018
“A few fun Venom-centric moments aside, it has nearly nothing to offer. Don’t get your hopes up.”
Asked about the CGI by a follower, he branded it “awful”.
Mike Ryan of Uproxx said: “I’m *fascinated* with VENOM. The cast seems to all know they’re in a darker superhero movie, except Tom Hardy who is basically remaking Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar.
“I kinda loved watching this movie, in a Rocky Horror type of way. At one point Tom Hardy and Venom make out.”
It’s not all bad though – Beatrice Verhoeven of The Wrap said: “#Venom wasn’t as bad as everyone was saying it was going to be.
“Tom Hardy is and always will be a great actor, and I laughed a lot — but I’m not sure whether that was intentional or not. Post-credit scene is [fire].”
Hardy himself revealed in an interview over the weekend that 40 minutes’ worth of his favourite scenes have been cut.
Venom is out tomorrow.
