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Trailer Review 024 & Movie Preview 033

Venom

SONY Pictures

[October 04th, 2018]

Trailer(s) Effectiveness = 90% for showcasing the action in the film and teasing the showdown between the Symbiotes.

After the dream Disney-FOX merger finally went through last month, we could look back retrospectively on the previous deal made between Marvel and Sony to reintroduce Spider-Man back into the currently thriving MCU as the one that started it all and made that merger possible. With the success of Homecoming allows its sequel to be made and is currently shooting, Sony themselves had been trying to make their own cinematic universe inexplicably by spinning off the webslinger's deep villain roster without a direct involvement of Peter Parker himself. Or maybe he is in the film, but we still do not know the truth, at least for now. That is the main point of contention for the detractors of this particular project: how could you make a Venom movie without having Spider-Man in it? They go hand in hand in the comics and the last attempt to adapt this feud was an unmitigated disaster (reportedly because of heavy studio meddling that forced Sam Raimi's hands) which is why fans have been clamoring for a faithful adaptation especially after the recent reboot with Tom Holland! It is the same studio that now wanted to set off on their own with an anti-hero in Eddie Brock and the Symbiote that is infesting him, with the former would fight to gain control of the latter and use its abilities for good, instead of nonstop carnage (* wink, wink *). We saw in the teaser and the first trailer of the early scenes of him being slowly infected, the internal struggle between him and its conscience and the tease of Venom finally being unleashed on "the bad guys" (poor choice of dialogue to highlight ... the newest trailer does not do any better). With the first look doing its job in introducing the film's premise, we finally see the titular character in full action in this recent trailer with its signature webby and tentacles action sequences in full glory against the bad guys looking for Symbiote while the rest of the extraterrestrial beings being applied on other apparently three more criminals that would be the real antagonists that Eddie and Venom had to team up to properly overcome. The VFX are of the highest quality (despite what the detractors would say ... how more 'lifelike' do you think the Symbiotes could be?!) when when the CGI characters are fully going, especially than end shot of Venom with its white counterpart, which showcase what the moviegoers would see in the third act and if you're still not sold with this full feature after this, I can't see what other aspects that still hasn't been highlighted that could tide you over. Bare in mind that this would be mostly a psychological thriller with Brock and the Venom having psychological war with one another as the throughline at least for the first and second act while his involvement with the Essex Industries would play out in the background. I'm not as turn off as others with the dialogues (some of those spoken by the Venom are actually straight off the pages) as I could see the Venom is the ultimate B-movie villain with cheesy quips (certainly because of being inspired by action heroes of yesteryears) although I'm not as fond of them putting images over Eddie that weren't they before, i.e. superimpose the Venom's eyes over him in the MRI. Sony is not putting their best foot forward to let us see this flick at the same level of the current crop of Marvel movies, but everyone has to start somewhere, right? We'll see where this goes and if it would kickstart Sony's Shared Universe. Do you remember what I said before on putting the cart before the horse? Remember, remember, the Universal's Dark Universe ...

Chance of Success =  75% with action fully advertised now and familiarity of the titular character.

> my previous posts on the teaser and trailer <

The Symbiotes ...

The unwilling test subjects ...

The mastermind ...

The infestation ... and eventual consummation.

The toll on his body the mind trip, the help in the time of need and the eventual manifestation ...

When in doubt, let the Symbiote take over you and fix your broken bones. He might want to munch on something though ...

There are others at play here aside from Brock ...

It looks like Venom finds his equal here. Now don't say there's not enough Symbiote-on-Symbiote action!

You can expect moments of levity to balance against the gory action and thriller aspect of the body snatcher scenario. Whether it is funny to you or not, that's the main variable here.

a case for the trailer full with Symbiote action goodness:

+ Highlights +

seeing the Symbiotes in their full gore glory with the tentacles and carnage they inflict. don't say that you can barely see them anymore!

? Main contention ?

most of the action set pieces are set at night which is understandable since these sets of characters would play the best against the darkness instead of in the broad daylight.

- Lowlights -

the dialogues though ...

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a case for this first step for a Sony Spidey-Verse:

+ Highlights +

a Venom film in and of itself would be a delight, seeing the arch-villain getting a proper spotlight for once! I know exactly what the film is going for and I can't wait to see it in the cinema myself.

? Main contention ?

the apparent tone of the film seeing through the trailers and marketing material couldn't lift itself up over being just another inconsequential action blockbuster ... it's exactly what it says on the tin, for better or for worse.

- Lowlights -

I'm all for having more studios churning more superhero films even more so just to add varieties to the current movie scene but if it fails to garner enough earnings to warrant a followup, I'm hoping that they would learn their lesson and start anew again.

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- Synopsis -
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Cast

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Woody Harrelson, Tom Holland as Peter Parker (rumoured), Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed as Dr. Carlton Drake, Scott Haze (rumoured) ...

(Ruben Fleischer [30 Minutes or Less, Zombieland], Genre - Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Sony's Spider-Man Universe)

- IMDb - wiki -

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