One of the most baffling things regarding the backlash to Ruben Fleischer's Venom isn't so much the response to Tom Hardy's performance (which is admittedly played to comedic effect), but rather its general tone. There seems to be this idea that Venom isn't in on its own joke, which is a remarkably disingenuous conclusion to make, given the comedic intent of many of its sequences.
Though Venom may have originally been billed as a horror film inspired by the works of David Cronenberg, the end product is most definitely not that. Whether or not the more horrific version would've been better is open to debate, but one thing that isn't is that Venom is definitely aware of what it's doing, and that goes double for Hardy, who portrays Eddie Brock with a kind of manic energy none of the film's trailers let on prior to release.
There's just no way moviegoers can laugh at a film that is so clearly aware of what it's doing. And yet, judging by online reaction, that appears to be the case.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
