After the first trailer, one that actually looks like a Venom movie is a victory. Maybe the next trailer will make the movie look something other than bad. Right now, it does not. Between the awful dialogue, awkward acting, and the fact Venom still looks more like Jason Bourne with a symbiote suit than a movie about the classic Spider-Man villain, I’m feeling no real reason for hope.
Along with our first look at the symbiote (symBYEote?) in action – and thank goodness most of those action shots from the first trailer were just the product of unfinished CG – this trailer establishes the plot. Eddie Brock is still a reporter. He investigates a company called the Life Foundation. This foundation discovered the symbyeote and of course uses it for evil purposes. They kidnap Brock and forcefully implant the symbyeote.
And from there we get Bourne with a symbiote.
Look, I’ve been surprised plenty of times about the quality of a movie or show. I want Venom to surprise me, too. I just can’t picture how it will. Everything about this feels like exactly what fans feared it would be; a quick, dirty cash grab to keep hold of the rights to Venom. Sony released the first, clearly rushed trailer without any of the CG ready in hopes of piggybacking off other trailers that same week. The dialogue is the kind of stuff you scribble down five minutes before a book presentation. The set-up is the kind of cheap throw-together plot of a hundred other movies and has nothing to do with the character outside of a name and look.
They’re literally shoving the word anti-hero in your face.
Fans feared how you could possibly make this movie without a connection to Spider-Man. So far Sony has failed not only to eliminate those fears but nearly confirm them. I hope I’m wrong.
Venom is currently scheduled for an October 5 release.