Venom - Oct 4

Now then, ‘Venom’.

Straight away, the movie has problems, because it is not MCU per se, but in ‘Sony something-something Marvel something-something’. Doesn’t really roll off the tongue even if you aren’t sarcastic, now does it? And the same thing goes with the movie, literally – it doesn’t quite have the same roll as the MCU movies do…but then again, it isn’t supposed to: it was made by Sony, not by Disney, so to judge it by the MCU standard is just flat-out wrong. To continue.

By now, most people have come to the conclusion that Tom Hardy, who plays the titular role, has largely altered and shaped the movie; ‘Venom’ is all about him…and he deserves it, since he plays both Venom and Brock, who’s Venom’s host. Go Tom! However, it also raises, (sort of), the issue as to why he wasn’t ‘in sync’ with the rest of the cast, and why no one called him out on it, because while he does save the movie, (in a manner of speaking), he’s also the reason as to why it is ‘out of sync’ – because he is clearly moving to a different drum than the rest of the cast.

Big deal? Well, it sort of is, because this ‘dissonance’ is one of the reasons why ‘Venom’ isn’t considered great unanimously, and considering that Sony had had problems with films in the past, (remember the dictator mess?), it’s anyone’s guess as to where it will go now…and yes, the mention of Kasady, (who’s the host of Carnage in the comics), is a great big honking clue.

This is the next point: so far, Venom’s world is extremely limited, especially by Marvel standards – it only has symbionts and that is it; they did not really make a mention or make a tie-in with the greater MCU. By contrast, ‘Cloak & Dagger’ TV series pointedly did at their S1 finale, tying their universe with both Disney’s and Netflix’s corners of Marvel. ‘Venom’ didn’t do anything like that; so far, this Sony-Marvel universe appears to be self-contained, and while it can be self-sustaining, the audience doesn’t like that. People got used to Marvel movies and shows, how they are all interconnected – ‘Runaways’ S2 is coming in December 2018, so it’ll be interesting to see how it fits in with MCU now – so something different, and not necessarily in a good way, is instinctively raising their hackles, so to speak. So far, there is no indication that Sony-Marvel will embrace the greater MCU – the relationship of Sony with Disney was never very easygoing, and people are instinctively upset about that as well.

Now, there’s no overwhelming reason as to why Sony should throw in with Disney/Marvel, and not do their own thing, for the Spider-Man universe is quite big, Venom is only a part of it, so who knows as to who will appear next – Michael Morbius is the best candidate so far, but still – yet this brings us to ‘Titans’.

‘Titans’ are a DC TV show, not a Marvel, (a fact that probably won’t stop the fans from crossing the ‘Titans’ over with the ‘Avengers’ and who knows who else from MCU, as opposed to DCEU, which is another story), but so far it is shaping to be very interesting – yet already people are unhappy, because ‘Titans’ are splintering DCEU even further – there’re the movies, the ‘Arrow-verse’, (with ‘Black Lightning’ being adjunct to it, sort of), there was ‘Powerless’, (which got cancelled mid-S1, the only DC TV series to become cancelled at all, but that is another story), and now – ‘Titans’. They are coming and not everyone is accepting that they are going to be a separate universe – and the same goes for Sony. Not everyone is happy about them trying to do something separate here; in fact, most people are upset about it; plus…

…when I was younger and did not realize just how much life could suck on occasion, (and on other occasions it actually works – go figure), we had a CD game, Maximum Carnage, in which Spidey and Venom raced forwards and beat down bad guys. Not the most complex of games, but it worked. As a game, that is – in real life, it proved to be not quite compatible to our computers, so we had to give it away to our friends… never mind. The point is that ‘Venom 2018’ here feels like a version of this game, just without Spider-Man – Eddie and Venom raced around, beat down bad guys, the end. The villain, (actually, both of them) look and act generic, Eddie’s love interest – ditto, so at least some people are underwhelmed by the movie, especially after you look past the special effects and Hardy’s acting, and people did. By now, they agree that it is not necessarily a bad movie, but not necessarily a good one either, especially if you look at all of the abovementioned points. But to those who still want to go to the movie theaters and look at it all the same – go for it, Tom Hardy makes a generic, though atypical, superhero, (or rather – antihero) going to save the world look good.

Speaking of anti-heroes? ‘Daredevil’ S3 is also coming to Netflix this October. In it, Wilson Fisk the Kingpin is out of the big house and is poised to take over NYC in a plot… that is already similar to him becoming the city’s mayor in the Marvel comics. That was ‘the Defenders’ comics miniseries, (about a dozen issues or so), where the Defenders fought…Copperhead, or Diamondback, as well as the Hood, as the two villains fought each other, (supposedly), for the title of NYC’s Kingpin, (with Fisk backing Copperhead/Diamondback/etc.). Black Cat had also thrown her hat into that fray, but eventually backed out, after she got killed – and the Hood resurrected her. Apparently, he has mystical powers, and so the Defenders summoned practically every other Marvel superhero that is associated with NYC and – the series ended. Sometimes Marvel is like that – but we got sidetracked, the point is that if Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ will be influenced by this story arc, then maybe the rest of Netflix’s Defenders will appear in it as well? Yes, Danny Rand is in Asia right now, but he can always come back – TV can be weird like that. We will just have to wait and see instead.

This is it for now – see you all soon!