Internet rumours indicate that Sony isn't learning from the MCU example, rewriting a huge portion of Venom's backstory, no reference to Peter Parker, and the movie is tame in terms of symbiote-related violence.
I think it's a download for a Sunday afternoon when it drops. Shame, Tom Hardy was a promising glimmer of hope.
I have almost zero interest in the Venom movie, and I'm a guy that has followed the character since his first appearance in The Amazing Spider-Man #299-300, and the first appearance of the black costume in ASM #252 / Secret Wars #8 (all comics that I still own, by the way, in near-mint condition
). In other words, I am smack dab in the centre of this movie's target audience.
To be honest, I never loved Venom as a character, and I thought the character got stupider-looking over the years as new artists made his teeth larger and his tentacle tongue more ridiculous. The original Venom storyline from ASM #299-300 is still excellent, as were the next few Venom story arcs, largely because Venom was the only villain that did not trigger Spider-man's spider-sense and he knew Peter Parker's secret identity so he could torture Peter by befriending Aunt May and showing up for dinner uninvited.
The trailers for Venom are terrible, cringe-worthy even.
This may be very bad news for Sony who reportedly is developing a Spider-verse of movies, next to feature Morbius and then Silver & Black (being Silver Sable and Black Cat). I think these are all horrible ideas.
Part of me hopes that Venom fails so badly that Sony stops making Spidey-flicks and Marvel Studios gets, buys or licenses back the rights to the character. Spidey and friends belong in the MCU.
