Sony Pictures got quite an earful (…er, screen-ful?) when they dropped the first teaser trailer for VENOM, starring Tom Hardy in the title role. For those unfamiliar, Venom is a highly-popular Spider-Man villain in the Marvel comic books, and was brought to the big screen once before in Sam Raimi’s rather cluttered SPIDER-MAN 3, played then by Topher Grace. The concept in the comics is an alien symbiote attaches itself to a man named Eddie Brock, who then becomes this alien menace named Venom, exhibiting powers and abilities similar to Spidey. But the teaser trailer was missing a rather important element… we never saw Venom! Needless to say, internet fanboys didn’t like that very much, and now we’ve got a second trailer that finally gives us that money shot. Personally, I think the idea of a Venom movie separate from the Spider-Man franchise is kind of risky. There’s so much story there to cover, and so much of it involves Spider-Man, that to separate it and make it its own thing seems like a huge misstep. But this is the same studio that reportedly forced Raimi to include Venom in his third film, when there were already two other villains to contend with in that story. Regardless of whether you think the movie itself is a good idea or not, the new trailer doesn’t feel like much of an improvement over the first. It feels messy, and Eddie Brock’s powers look sloppy. Maybe this works better as the story progresses, but for a movie trailer I’m still not quite impressed. Outside of Hardy, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Riz Ahmed, and Scott Haze. Tom Holland is rumored to appear as Spider-Man, but we’d guess no more than a cameo… again, probably a mistake not using him more. The movie is directed by Rueben Fleischer, who is best known for helming ZOMBIELAND. Take a look at the new trailer below and tell us your thoughts in the comments.
One of Marvel’s most enigmatic, complex and badass characters comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award® nominated actor Tom Hardy as the lethal protector Venom.