Venom Has Screened, Here Are The Early Reactions

Sony's experiments with Venom over the years have been... interesting. By all accounts, the alien symbiote was forced on Sam Raimi for the ill-fated Spider-Man 3, miscasting Topher Grace as a smarmy Eddie Brock and relying on practical effects to create Venom's signature suit. And now that the studio is trying to bring Venom back to the big screen in a solo origin story, behind-the-scenes business deals mean they need to do so without the assistance of Venom's true rival, Spider-Man.

Venom held its world premiere on Monday night, and social media reactions dropped overnight, with people in general feeling mixed-to-negative about Ruben Fleischer's film. I'll start with my own Tweet, where I claim:

Trying to elaborate, I follow up with:

Meanwhile, over at ComicBook, Brandon Davis weighs in with:

And SuperBrosMovies goes this far:

But on some of the Tweets, the tide turns, as a few viewers believe that the comedy in the movie saves it, or that Venom merely isn't as bad as they feared it could be. Backhanded praise, but praise, nonetheless. Perri Nemiroff from Collider states:

And Beatrice Verhoeven of The Wrap claims:

Unintended laughter is still laughter, right? The datedness of Venom is what strikes most people, with this Tweet summing it up:

Soon, you will be able to see for yourself. Tom Hardy stars as Venom, in a movie that surrounds him with Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate and Woody Harrelson. It will be in theaters starting Thursday night. Do you think you will check it out?

This poll is no longer available.

Sean O'Connell
Managing Editor

Sean O’Connell is a journalist and CinemaBlend’s Managing Editor. Having been with the site since 2011, Sean interviewed myriad directors, actors and producers, and created ReelBlend, which he proudly cohosts with Jake Hamilton and Kevin McCarthy. And he's the author of RELEASE THE SNYDER CUT, the Spider-Man history book WITH GREAT POWER, and an upcoming book about Bruce Willis.