Total cinematic failure. This is not just a case where the authors tried and failed, when they didn’t see some moments, stuck in production hell, etc., it is a case where literally everything was done wrong right from the beginning.
Sony's biggest mistake is trying to shoot something in the Spider universe without him. Studio, what's wrong with you? You have the best asset and a lot of money, you just need to collect talented people and make good movies. And they gave Spider to Marvel, signing that they do not believe in their own strength and intend to make money simply by renting a cash cow. Then they changed their shoes and decided that they would shoot themselves, but about the villains of Spider separately. This is absolutely... idiotic! ridiculous! unprofessional! a failed move! In the gaming industry, this is called “dLC content cut.” They want to make 2-3-5 times as much money selling Spider-Man’s universe multiple times, and that’s never been a good thing. It is impossible to make a film about Watson without Holmes, about Gorlum without hobbits, about April without turtles and Shredder, about Piglet without Winnie the Pooh, etc. It's NOT-HOW-POSSIBLE. The audience already has an image of the whole world and a list of expectations from it, and if the studio bosses cut off more than half of the concept, then such a craft will never be accepted. For a third of the concept, you get a third of the money and a third of the rating.
Venom is an anti-hero in his mind. This means that he is the main character, while not possessing the positive qualities that the hero traditionally should have. In order for such a character to be revealed, he needs a hero in the frame, for opposition. Deadpool has the right Colossus, Logan has Xavier. And Venom should have it... Who? That's right. But he's not in the movie. Therefore, the antihero is forced to take the place of the hero and behaves too softly and correctly: Venom ceases to be Venom, he does not reveal the dark sides of a person’s personality, does not make him a criminal, as it was in the comics and animated series, does not tempt him with force. He's just sort of fighting evil, and that's literally all. That's not his job. It's a concept drain.
- They promised an 18+ movie. They let out, as always, a baby. It's not that I want blood in the frame, it's that in a movie with a child rating everything is fake. It means you don’t believe what’s going on: harmless shootings, painless fights, playful breakups, toy losses, lack of fear... lack of empathy for it all.
- Who could be the villain of the movie? The answer to this is obvious – Carnage. But it was postponed until the sequel, so that at least something interesting happened sometime later, and plugged the villain’s quota with an absolute blank. It is no one to call him in any way, Riota was not shown in any of the animated series, he is familiar only to fans of comics and appeared in only one arch, no one was waiting for him. DC had just made the same mistake at Justice League – they put Darkseid down, put unnecessary nouneym in his place, and failed. Darkseid will no longer be on the screen (until a restart is made).
As for the human villain, he didn’t do anything interesting in the film, he wasn’t active, he just gave bad orders standing in the room. Hell, he didn't even go outside. About his plans, he carries some nonsense: the Earth will die, you need to go into space, you need to merge with the symbiotes, you need to immediately experiment on people. Why would he say that? This is a man who, at 19, started treating cancer and who launches ships into space. It is difficult for me to imagine that a scientist could be a scoundrel, but to also be a capricious child with manias, going to the wet for a healthy life is just nonsense.
- Another leak of the concept is the rejection of the image of Brock as a journalist. That is, again, the viewer has expectations in this direction, they are ready to see the story about the journalist, but this is a puff. In the only report he showed, he behaves like a complete idiot and immediately flies out of work. Why is this done? Can you imagine if the hero was Venom and remained a journalist? Hell, that would be even more interesting. But the authors felt that they simply would not pull such an image and rushed to drop it, pushing the character to an absolutely unrealistic act. Brock was directly told which bump he was going to and what he would be for amateur activity, and he still covered him in front of the camera like Cords. .
- Hero's friend. She did a few things in the film, never made a fuss, worked clearly everywhere, met the requirements of modern feminists. The only drawback is that she is not a person. She was not revealed, she was not prescribed a character, she has no recognizable individual style. This character does not develop, she does not empathize.
- And yes, a love triangle. It is shown that the girl found a new man, the rivals met face to face and... what? Nothing.
- The film is the most common clichéd original, with such a few years ago tied Marvel. Everyone already understands that the viewer is tired of the same films about how a man gets his strength, half the film somewhere wanders and thinks what to do with them, and in the end leaks a specially prepared villain.
Well, since there is such an opinion “criticize – offer”, then in conclusion I will say what this film could be if everything was done correctly. Brock, as a journalist, investigates the murders of a serial killer, a chain of events leads him to Cletus Cassady, and he initially tries to cooperate with the police, but they are always lacking evidence, they do not act. He writes an article about it, imbued with personal emotions, he is demoted for it, but not fired, ordered to quit this case. The hero catches a symbiote while visiting the laboratory, where he normally interviews the director of the Life Foundation. He begins to hear a voice in his head, but at first he blames it on madness. The voice teaches him that to catch a maniac, you have to become a maniac yourself. Venom is trying to commit murder, but Brock can stop him for now. He finds Cassady and is going to kill, but Spider appears, beats Venom, pushes a speech that it is impossible, as a result, the criminal takes advantage of the situation, injures Brock, and not only escapes, but also gets infected with a symbiote, which turns him into Carnage and makes it even more dangerous. Brock recovers after a few days, realizing that he missed the criminal because of the punk and lost the opportunity to rehabilitate at work. Venom wasn't even with him these days, but he's coming back - it turns out he was a Spider-Symbiote at the time and learned a lot from him. Brock feels a bit of jealousy. The symbiote caught the ideals of Parker and even planned to stay with him, but he got rid of him. So now the partners make up and both hate Spider. Carnage pursues Brock's fiancée, but she still escapes. Venom defeats Carnage, and he even has many witnesses, but everyone decides that the hero was Spider, all the glory goes to him.
In this scenario, all the iconic characters appear, there is space for a detective line, the characters are busy with something more than just catching up, Brock and Venom have reasons to hate Spider, know his secret identity, while he does not take over the action of the film, but appears in a small scene, there is a reserve for a sequel, just about the new symbiotes from the Life Foundation, and then they would already be really 5 in the film, and the viewer would expect such a sequel aimed at growth in number, would know the Fund’s boss and would like to reveal what kind of the organization there, and Brock would still meet Parker in the future film when he would come to be in the newspapers. In history, much of the canon is preserved, but it goes from a different angle, so that it is interesting for both ours and yours. This is what you could do. But we didn't.