Venom 3 - Oct 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Venom 3’ film at last.

The movie works. It primarily aims at the feelings, the emotions, and the such, and since this is the third (and final?) film of the series, it works. More specifically, it works because both the Sony studios in general and Mr. Tom Hardy in particular, did their best to make Venom likable and approachable, and so on. Whereas in AAA we’re dealing with an almost complete set of strangers that don’t appear to matter to the greater MCU at all, (aside from the titular character, the Teen Willy/Billy, and Rio the Grim Reaper), in ‘Venom 3’ we’re dealing with characters who became well established in that universe (Earth-688B, apparently), instead.

Moreover, the plot itself had been built up from the start – this movie series was about the titular character, and how the latter becomes from just one of the symbiotes (the Klyntar), into Earth’s defender from king Knull and his forces.

The King in Black, incidentally, is more than just ‘one movie villain’ himself: contrary to expectations, and to the Marvel comics, here, Venom and Knull never had a personal confrontation, and now, it seems that Knull might be this universe’s main Big Bad.

The other candidate for that role are ‘the Imperium’, mentioned by the late Strickland. In Marvel, this is assigned to the Shi’Ar aliens, who are usually associated with the X-Men, and who have already re-appeared in the ‘X-Men ‘97’ cartoon, however briefly. Since the ‘Sony Universe of Marvel Characters’ is mostly about the wall-crawler and his cohorts, the odds of the Shi’Ar appearing there are low, but not impossible – if Sony and Disney/MCU make an agreement, who knows what can happen?

Well, a confrontation between Spider-Man and Venom did not happen, for a fact, and the wall-crawler himself appears to be absent from ‘his’ universe. There was a Parker baby in the Madame Web movie but how the latter is related to the ‘Venom’ series is still unknown. In addition, it takes place during the 1990s, so at best it would be in Eddie’s past, no?

More importantly, the ‘Venom 3’ film moved this universe forward, as we now have the universe’s (potential) big bad, as well as new developments, such as the fact that the Venom Symbiote is gone. Ish, because Sony isn’t beyond hedging its’ bets, and ensuring that the VS might have survived, (the cockroach scene), plus VS left another part of it in the MCU, remember? Therefore, it can come back, but whether or not Tom Hardy will, is another matter.

Without Venom, however, the SUMC will suffer, as both ‘Morbius’ and ‘Madam Web’ films fell far short of the series, and Miles Morales’ animated movie series are separate from the SUMC (in a matter of speaking, but still). Put otherwise, for better or for worse, SUMC still has progress and development, while MCU, (as depicted by AAA), appears to have stalled.

Does ‘Venom 3’ have its flaws? Obviously – as you get past the emotional manipulation (by the movie itself), the plot is thin and simple, but then again, as MCU showed, you don’t need a complex plot to succeed or a simple plot to fail. ‘Venom 3’ succeeded where AAA is failing, and that is what matters.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!