Here's the thing: Venom isn't 'so bad it's good', but it's not on the level of other comic book films to have released post-2008 either. Instead, it occupies a weird middle-ground between the abject horror of films like Elektra and the mediocrity of Ghost Rider; it's poorly made - yes - but it's so off the wall, so bonkers and so weird that it transcends those films altogether.
It's quite remarkable, and while this defence of the film hasn't been made in an attempt to eventually reappraise Venom as one of the true greats of the genre - because it isn't, nor ever will be - the film is way more entertaining than the review aggregators would lead you to believe.
There seems to be a sense that Venom is a bad movie, but there's an important delineation to be made between a 'poorly made film' and a demonstrably abject piece of entertainment. Fleischer never manages to execute anything in the story perfectly, and it's obvious that there is a better film hidden within the final cut, but it's not offensive. Rather, its own irreverent approach to the source material results in a film of two halves - one just as flawed as it is entertaining.
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.
