10 Sci-Fi Movies That Ignored The Critics

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 30%

Metacritic Score: 35

The critics did not go easy on Venom back in 2018, and it's not difficult to see why. Harking back to the uneven superhero films of yore (or, you know, the noughties), it has a predictable plot, a two-dimensional villain, and forgoes a lot of what makes other contemporary Marvel properties so appealing.

But it doesn't matter that Sony's curiously-named SPUMC is a non-starter as far as universe-building goes, or that Venom doesn't really tie into anything else, including its comic book progenitor Spider-Man.

Such is the draw of Venom, comic book fans went to see it in their droves. The perfect villain-cum-anti-hero, Venom as a character represents a niche that has largely gone untapped in comic book movies, offering humour and violence unfettered by a strict moral code. The film's plot may be by the numbers, its villain may be uninspired, but Tom Hardy's quirky Eddie Brock and the entirely three-dimensional symbiote living inside him (also voiced by Hardy) make ideal screen companions, and are endlessly watchable just as a phenomenon in themselves.

And the stats back this up. CinemaScore polls gave the film an average grade of B+, those at PostTrak gave it 80%, and it currently holds 80% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes. Oh, and it also did $850 million at the global box office.