chris3
Badass
I just ordered a slice of pumpkin pie...
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Post by chris3 on Oct 4, 2018 9:18:16 GMT
It's PITIFUL. The worst part was that I saw it with friends, so I couldn't even walk out. Listen, everyone with half a brain knew this movie would be dogshit. I hoped it would be fun dogshit. It's not. This movie felt like the studio execs finally cut out the middle men (you know, the writers and directors and all that useless stuff), fed a computer every single focus-group cliche in the book, and this is what got spat out the other end. This isn't a movie, it's an algorithm of banality. Venom doesn't just represent everything wrong with cinema, it represents everything wrong with cinema FROM FIFTEEN YEARS AGO. Poor Michelle Williams seems absolutely pissed at her agent for convincing her to take this paycheck gig, and she wisely devotes as little energy as possible to her insulting, thankless "character". Tom Hardy, on the other hand, fully commits to his characterization of badass journalist bro Eddie Brock, and is HILARIOUSLY bad. I love Tom Hardy, and now that I've seen him give a bad performance at the very least I can respect him for going so far over-the-top with his badness that even when he sucks he's still interesting. That's the best aspect of the movie: Hardy is so awful that his ridiculous tics and mannerisms are somewhat entertaining, whereas the rest of the movie is just soul-crushingly generic. It's painfully obvious that NO ONE besides Hardy (who chews the scenery with epic, misguided aplomb) gave a shit about this project. It's an utterly passionless affair. It's all ATROCIOUS, but never in an idiosyncratic way. It's not even atrocious in an educational way like Suicide Squad, where the bad Ayer choices contrasting with the bad WB choices resulted in a specifically bad product. Venom is somehow blander and more studio-mandated than The Amazing Spider-Man. The worst part was a mid-credits scene involving Woody Harrelson in a Carrot Top wig. That's right folks: in this movie we got to see a black CGI blob incoherently battle a gray CGI blob, and the stinger promises a sequel featuring a black CGI blob incoherently battling a red CGI blob. Hooray. Please don't pay to see this movie.
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Deleted
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Venom.
Oct 4, 2018 9:27:44 GMT
via mobile
Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2018 9:27:44 GMT
I’m seeing this tonight. I’m not going in with high expectations, but I still think I’ll be entertained. Also, while your comments on the credits scene sort of confirms a guess I had about his character, it might be considered a spoiler for others.
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Post by notacrook on Oct 4, 2018 9:57:15 GMT
Yep, it was pretty atrocious. Would fit in perfectly with the terrible superhero flicks of the 90s/00s. At best, it's a hilariously misguided comedy. At worst, it's an utterly soulless, joyless and horribly directed mess. Both Hardy and Ahmed give career-worst performances, while Williams does indeed look like she can't believe she's putting up with this. 2.5/10
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Post by Ryan_MYeah on Oct 4, 2018 19:36:34 GMT
The worst part was a mid-credits scene involving Woody Harrelson in a Carrot Top wig. Please tell me it’s not Cletus Cassidy. Venom himself is boring, but I actually like Carnage, so I’m deathly terrified by that. I still really want to see it. Not just for completionist’s sake (how much does it tie in to the MCU?), but I’m a glutton for punishment, and I love the idea of Hardy going overboard and cartoonish.
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Venom.
Oct 4, 2018 21:36:05 GMT
Post by alexanderblanchett on Oct 4, 2018 21:36:05 GMT
I really looked forward to another (anti) superhero movie in the tradition of "Deadpool". While the film was not bad at all, it does not reach the cult league of the formerly mentioned. The film had many good aspects. The most one to focus on is surely the casting coup of Tom Hardy who was a blessing for the film. He nailed the role perfectly and was able to add a lot of self irony to the film without forgetting to take his character serious (as much as it gets). The other great moments was when actual Venom was on screen, especially in the first half. And there is also the first problem. The film deserved to have more on-screen Venom and in the second half of the film the character lost a bit of its appeal and somehow his origins. They could have made more out of it and that role and generally had potential to make the film much darker but I guess they aspired the PG 13 rating too hard. Besides Tom Hardy we have the Reuben Fleischer had the great opportunity to have the wonderful Michelle Williams on board. However with that screenplay and her role it was impossible to use her full potential so she was more or less wasted. Kudos to Williams that she really tried to make the best out of it. Riz Ahmed was an interesting choice for the villain and it worked. The ending was a bit anti climatic. There were a couple of entertaining action sequences and exciting editing. The soundtrack worked and there is a great came of Woody Harrelson that really makes me hungry for a Carnage movie with him the title role. However, I dont think the world will need a "Venom" sequel. Nice try, not a failure but wasted opportunity.
Nominations:
None
Rating: 7/10
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Post by HELENA MARIA on Oct 5, 2018 7:05:52 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2018 8:27:32 GMT
I saw it last night. It was like a weird cross between the Spawn and Ghost Rider movies with a dash of Catwoman thrown in there. You’d think I just confirmed everyone’s words that it’s trash, but I personally still enjoyed it. Whenever Venom himself (Itself?) is onscreen, I’m happy. Yeah, Hardy, Ahmed, and Williams all deserve way better, but Hardy at least looks like he had some fun making this. Of course, there are some parts where I had to scratch my head...like his whole behavior post-infection is unnecessarily over the top at times, and other times it feels like it was meant to be R-rated but then they had to censor themselves. I give it a 6.
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Venom.
Oct 5, 2018 17:16:22 GMT
Post by mrimpossible on Oct 5, 2018 17:16:22 GMT
This movie is a guilty pleasure. The dialogue is wretched, acting sucks, one dimensional characters, etc but my god I had fun.
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Venom.
Oct 5, 2018 23:45:27 GMT
Post by Ryan_MYeah on Oct 5, 2018 23:45:27 GMT
If this is actually in the movie... oh god! I half expected a “SEXY MOTHAFUCKA” out of Deadpool.
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Post by evilbliss on Oct 6, 2018 0:29:09 GMT
“I wish there was always a clear, artistic line, but at a certain point, you have to square with the fact that you’re getting older, you live in the world and you have needs. In my twenties, I wasn’t cognizant of retirement, the housing market or college tuition; I just did whatever the fuck I wanted to do. Now, I sometimes do what I want to do, but I also have to make decisions that take care of my family. So, the decision-making is all over the place. It used to be one thing, but now it’s many things.”
– Oscar-nominated actor Michelle Williams on why she decided to do ‘VENOM’.
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Post by HELENA MARIA on Oct 6, 2018 2:00:23 GMT
“I wish there was always a clear, artistic line, but at a certain point, you have to square with the fact that you’re getting older, you live in the world and you have needs. In my twenties, I wasn’t cognizant of retirement, the housing market or college tuition; I just did whatever the fuck I wanted to do. Now, I sometimes do what I want to do, but I also have to make decisions that take care of my family. So, the decision-making is all over the place. It used to be one thing, but now it’s many things.”– Oscar-nominated actor Michelle Williams on why she decided to do ‘VENOM’.
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Venom.
Oct 8, 2018 0:12:41 GMT
Post by cheesecake on Oct 8, 2018 0:12:41 GMT
It's looks painfully bad but maybe in a fun way?
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Venom.
Oct 8, 2018 0:14:55 GMT
Post by evilbliss on Oct 8, 2018 0:14:55 GMT
It's looks painfully bad but maybe in a fun way? It's fun but in a bad way. Its not even a so bad that its good type of thing. Not even funny bad. Its bad but its no awful. Did I help?
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Zeb31
Based
Bernardo is not believing que vous êtes come to bing bing avec nous
Posts: 2,557
Likes: 3,794
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Post by Zeb31 on Oct 8, 2018 0:22:04 GMT
These reactions are making me way more interested to check it out than I'd be otherwise, but I just don't know if I can sit through 120 minutes of Tom Hardy doing... whatever the fuck it is that he and Fleischer decided to go with. Just from the clips his performance already looks like nails on a chalkboard, worst of the year, Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot-level torture, so I think I'm just gonna pass.
Sorry, Michelle.
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Venom.
Oct 8, 2018 0:23:50 GMT
Post by evilbliss on Oct 8, 2018 0:23:50 GMT
These reactions are making me way more interested to check it out than I'd be otherwise, but I just don't know if I can sit through 120 minutes of Tom Hardy doing... whatever the fuck it is that he and Fleischer decided to go with. Just from the clips his performance already looks like nails on a chalkboard, worst of the year, Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot-level torture, so I think I'm just gonna pass. Sorry, Michelle. They don't know what the hell they are doing, both he and Michelle. But they're not awful. It's like Nicole Kidman acting in bad movies: her acting is still flawless. Not that I'm comparing Kidman to these two but....I just did it!
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Venom.
Oct 8, 2018 15:25:16 GMT
Post by cheesecake on Oct 8, 2018 15:25:16 GMT
It's looks painfully bad but maybe in a fun way? It's fun but in a bad way. Its not even a so bad that its good type of thing. Not even funny bad. Its bad but its no awful. Did I help? Yup!
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Post by JangoB on Oct 10, 2018 1:15:24 GMT
I didn't think this was nearly as bad as its reputation seems to suggest. That being said, it is obviously rather mediocre. My biggest problem with the film was the almost total lack of memorable setpieces. There didn't seem to be much excitement in the action sequences, and that last battle of the symbiotes was utterly incomprehensible - people who said that the robot fights in Transformers were difficult to watch should really see these two dark blobs of CGI jump onto each other surrounded by darkness.
Everyone except Hardy is working on total autopilot here, from the hack director to poor Michelle Williams who seems like a kid who got lost in the woods and just decided to accept it. But Hardy is really giving it his all. That guy is not willing to give in to the mediocrity surrounding him - he's having a blast with all the comedy, physicality, overacting and accenting. For better or worse, he gives a highly entertaining and memorable performance, and the film actually gets a pulse whenever Brock and Venom are interacting. It's a fun and actually kinda endearing duo. I wish this was just a "Locke" style movie with 90 minutes of just Brock and Venom bickering while driving somewhere on their bike, without any of that boring evil genius stuff.
I found it quite watchable and not particularly terrible. Just very average. But Hardy does save a lot of it.
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AKenjiB
Badass
Posts: 1,047
Likes: 653
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Venom.
Oct 10, 2018 18:16:11 GMT
Post by AKenjiB on Oct 10, 2018 18:16:11 GMT
I really didn't like it. Tom Hardy gives it his all but it's probably my least favorite performance from him (I never saw "This Means War"). I didn't find it funny or scary, the visuals weren't very good, the action scenes were boring, Eddie barely has anything resembling a character arc. I guess he's mildly more assertive. I've got a lot to say so here are my complete thoughts: Venom is a film that should be decent enough in theory. Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, and Riz Ahmed are all incredibly talented actors who I have loved a lot in other stuff. Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland, 30 Minutes or Less) is a decent enough director, one who sounded passionate about the project. Having a character like Venom as a main character without Spider-Man is an interesting idea, though the question was whether or not it could actually be pulled off. Some people have compared Venom to Catwoman, which isn't just one of the worst superhero movies of all time, it's one of the worst movies of all time. I'm inclined to disagree, though there is a subplot involving Eddie's neighbor that's very similar to a subplot involving a neighbor in Catwoman. It's better than Catwoman, but it's also less enjoyable. Catwoman is a horrible movie, but it's fun to watch in an ironic way. Venom is less aggressively bad than Catwoman, but it's also more bland and boring as a result. I suppose the first problem with Venom is that there's nothing about it that feels special. Superhero movies are very popular right now so there needs to be something to really make it standout. One would think that the anti-hero approach would make it feel more unique, but the execution is so by-the-numbers. The film is so hesitant to show Venom doing anything villainous that he doesn't feel that interesting. The only thing that really stands out is how everything feels weaker than your average blockbuster. The characters, the visuals, the action all feel underwhelming. But first, I'll discuss somethings that I liked. I chuckled a couple times. There was something intentionally pretty funny about Venom commenting on how he's a loser like Eddie Brock, so that's good. Seeing bongs normalized as background items in a story that nobody calls attention to is kinda nice, but I'm not giving the film any points for that because it doesn't actually add anything to the film. I also liked the character played by Reid Scott (Veep). I mean, the character isn't that special or anything, but as the new boyfriend of Eddie's ex-fiancee, it was pretty refreshing that they didn't make him a jerk. It's so cheap and easy to have stories about kind-hearted men winning back their exes who have left them for jerks, so it was nice that Reid Scott's character is portrayed as a genuinely nice guy. So as explained above, the portrayal of the character Dan (Reed Scott) as a genuinely nice guy rather than Eddie's bitter enemy was refreshing. What was even more refreshing was that not only does he not die, he's still with Anne at the end of the film. I figured that the film would find some way to force Eddie to get back together with Anne, and it'd be through either Dan being a jerk or Dan dying. Instead, Eddie doesn't get the girl and that was actually surprising. So congratulations, Venom, you did one thing right. But besides that, I can't really think of anything memorable about Venom. Even when it's not aggressively bad, it still feels generic. I love Tom Hardy and he's...fine, I suppose. He definitely tries his hardest and arguably elevates the film a TINY bit, but this is probably my least favorite performance from him. Michelle Williams feels like she's sleepwalking through this. This makes a lot more sense when you realize that she only did the film for the money and I can't say I blame her. Riz Ahmed has been a real rising star from Nightcrawler to The Night Of . So it's a shame that his villain character is so boring. There could be some attempt to give him some dimensions, since technically his goals are in the name of curing diseases and advancing humanity, but he reacts to everything in the most villainous way possible. Jenny Slate is okay as an ambivalent scientist working for Riz Ahmed, but she feels less like a character and more like a plot device. I'm not saying films need to take the time to add huge depth to every supporting character, but it'd be nice if I felt like she served some kind of purpose beyond introducing Eddie to the story's main conflict. The script is pretty messy too, often times feeling like it's only concerned with advancing the plot agenda. It wants to get from Point A to Point B, but gives little thought into how to get there. Early on in the movie, Eddie has apparently been unemployed for 6 months, yet has still managed to live in a San Francisco apartment. The Venom symbiote is used in a surprising way yet is treated as insignificant by the characters. I'm referring to the scene where Eddie has been separated from the Venom symbiote and is about to be executed by some villainous henchman. Obviously, there's the cliche element where these henchman take forever to just shoot Eddie in the face when Venom, in a feminine form, appears, takes out the henchman and saves him. Then proceeds to kiss Eddie, causing the symbiote to transfer onto him, showing that Anne (Michelle Williams) had bonded with the symbiote to rescue him. Even though Eddie's bonding with Venom is shown to have a great physical and psychological effect on him, Anne seems pretty unfazed by the whole thing and it's not acknowledged again until a brief mention near the end of the film. The film's plot agenda needed Eddie to separate from Venom so Venom could save him later. But the film viewed Anne as nothing more than a plot device for Venom to temporarily attach to, so her emotional response to having her body taken over by an alien is completely ignored by the script. Likewise, Eddie is a flat protagonist with no real character arc or depth. He's an ambitious and sometimes reckless reporter who's a nice guy. That's about it. I can criticize a film like Doctor Strange for having a character arc that's pretty predictable, but at least that film had a character arc. In general, superhero origin stories should have character arcs and if they can't have one, they should have an interesting enough story to justify it. This film doesn't have either. I feel Venom could've been far more interesting if it showed Eddie being corrupted by the symbiote, gradually turning into a worse person over the course of the film. Now, maybe not everyone agrees that this is a direction that the film should've taken, but surely we can agree it's disappointing that Eddie doesn't develop at all. He's the exact same person at the end that he is at the beginning. The only difference is that now he has superpowers. I guess he's become mildly more assertive through Venom, since he's now eating people, but Eddie Brock as an individual hasn't really changed at all. Of course, lots have been said about the tonal issues. I suppose this is subjective but it didn't work for me. Venom does feel somewhat close to a horror-comedy, except it's not scary or funny. I did chuckle a couple times as mentioned above, but most of the attempts at buddy-comedy humor left me feeling nothing. There was a decent amount of laughter in the theater so don't take my word for it. Yet, I still felt like the film didn't know what it wanted to be. The first half feels very dark and serious before turning into a buddy-comedy once Venom enters. If anything, I would've preferred an opposite route. The film starts off humorous to relax the viewer before shocking them by entering darker territory once Venom comes in. Once again, that's personal preference so if what I described sounds like your type of movie, enjoy. And hey, some people probably don't even care about the plot or characters, right? They just want cool action and visual effects. Well, I'd argue the film doesn't really deliver on that front either. Most of the visuals look really fake. It's not as bad as Justice League but I never felt like the characters were actually interacting with the symbiote. Likewise, the action isn't exciting at all. Eddie is a passive character, seemingly having little control over what the Venom symbiote does, basically just soliciting advice ("Don't eat police officers") and reacting, which takes a lot out of the excitement for me personally. Remember the promised R-rating that we didn't get? Well, this film isn't even a hard PG-13. It's incredibly tame. If your interest in the film was seeing Venom bite off people's heads with lots of blood everywhere, look elsewhere. There's basically no blood at all until the mid-credits scene. Then we get another generic CGI climax to wrap the film up where we can barely even tell what's going on. By the time Venom was over, I felt underwhelmed. Nothing interesting to work as a good superhero film and nothing crappy enough to work as an entertaining bad movie. The mid-credits scene does feature one of the fakest wigs I've ever seen in the history of cinema, but besides that this film feels incredibly forgettable. I've already forgotten 99% of the jokes less than 24 hours after seeing the film. Like I said, there's apparently an audience for it, so all the more power to you if you enjoyed this movie or it sounds like something you'd like. But all it felt like to me was a dull corporate product, a mere attempt by Sony to keep the rights to a Spider-Man property and a waste of the talented actors involved. Won’t lie, still pretty upset that Tom Hardy and Riz Ahmed aren’t starring in The True American together anymore. Probably would’ve utilized their talents a lot better than this film.
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Venom.
Oct 11, 2018 19:24:22 GMT
Post by Viced on Oct 11, 2018 19:24:22 GMT
I went in expecting some quality stupid entertainment... but yeah, it's mostly a disaster. They should have just made it a full-fledged comedy. Some hilarious moments (both intentional and unintentional)... my favorite: (paraphrasing) Eddie: Are you gonna keep eating people? Venom: Most likely. And shortly after Venom gets in him and he's running through the woods and just runs through a giant fallen tree for the sole purpose of showing that his new powers give him the ability to smash right through it... lmao. Hardy is fun but I was expecting him to be more unhinged... Nic Cage doing this in the late '90s directed by Joel Schumacher would have resulted in a masterpiece. But yeah... mind-numbingly stupid, only a few good action moments, horribly written.... solid 4/10.
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Post by Pittsnogle_Goggins on Oct 14, 2018 17:07:44 GMT
Pretty meh overall but still had some amusing parts.
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Venom.
Oct 30, 2018 0:26:25 GMT
Post by therealcomicman117 on Oct 30, 2018 0:26:25 GMT
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Post by Ryan_MYeah on Dec 26, 2018 21:48:40 GMT
It’s so stupid, but it’s too... innocent in its stupidity to loathe. It’s terrible, tonally confused, laughably ridiculous (I would kill to see a cut of Hardy without the suit), and the third act is a fullblown shitshow, but... it’s almost not worth the vitriol.
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