Marvel’s new “Venom” release pleases fans but not critics

    Sony’s new Marvel movie, Venom, is highly acclaimed by Marvel fans, but is currently sitting at 32% in Rotten Tomatoes. Marvel fan, Kyle Reppert, was surprised to hear the bad reviews from so many movie critics when he himself found the movie “very good and after Avengers: Infinity War, my expectations were very high and Venom met them.”

    Venom is about a series of aliens, called symbiotes, that are taken from their planet to ours. The only way for the symbiotes to survive is to take a host from our planet, just like how the symbiote named Venom takes journalist Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, as his host. The only problem is that the host slowly dies on the inside as the symbiote slowly kills them. The symbiote and the host have to be a perfect match, much like an organ transplant. Reppert thinks of symbiotes as “villainous, but as seen in the new movie, symbiotes like Venom can be anti-heros and not total villains.”

    The CEO of the medical company, the Life Foundation, wants to bring more symbiotes onto Earth to merge with more hosts and combine the both worlds. Riot, a symbiote, wants the same thing, but wants the symbiotes to rule over all of Earth. Venom and Eddie Brock work together to try to stop this from happening.

    Tom Hardy, a British actor who portrays Eddie Brock and Venom, is also known for his other films, including Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, and Mad Max: Fury. Reppert believes that “Tom Hardy played Venom’s host very well because he acted the part of a journalist/hero who was not there to save the world, but there to help keep it safe very realistically.” Other actors in the film include Michelle Williams, Eddie Brock’s love interest, and Riz Ahmed, the CEO of the Life Foundation.

    At the end of the film, the post-credit scene alludes to a sequel film with Carnage being the main villain. Carnage is another symbiote known for his brutality and savagery. “Just like what the comics portray Venom and his enemies, a Venom and Carnage sequel would be a great way to keep the franchise going,” Reppert says.

    Many critics thought that Sony’s Venom movie, directed by Ruben Fleischer, was a huge let down and a disappointment after Avengers: Infinity War. Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers wrote about Venom saying, “That’s also a fair description of this puddle of simplistic, sanitized PG-13 drivel that Marvel has released instead of the scary, dark-night-of-the-soul thunderbolt fans had the right to expect.” Chris Nashawaty from Entertainment Weekly was little less harsh in their review of Venom saying it “isn’t quite bad, but it’s not exactly good either. It’s noncommittally mediocre and, as a result, forgettable.”

    Marvel fans, including Kyle Reppert, have a different view of the new film. 89% fans liked the film and was rated 4.5 out of 5, one being the worst and five being the best. Reppert agrees with the fan rating of 4.5 out of 5 for Sony’s Venom. “I believe that Sony did a good job representing Venom based on the idea that most people thought he would be a hero, but based out of the comics he is considered a villian and a stretched anti-hero. They did a good job representing him the same way he was created through the comics.”

    Critics reviews may have been on the negative side for Venom, but it is the complete opposite for most Marvel fans. The movie was a great action/comedy/adventure film worth watching. Watch Venom in theaters now to choose a side: the critics or the fans!