Venom 2: 10 Mistakes Sony Must Avoid This Time
We have the anti-venom to mediocrity.
A stand-alone Venom movie set outside the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It'll never work! The trauma of Topher Grace's Venom in 2007's Spider-Man 3 still lingers with a taste of bitter disappointment.
But it did work. Kinda.
Sony's 2018 symbiote origin was a resounding success financially, but less so with critics, and was both praised and reviled by audiences. Many think of it as dumb fun, or just plain dumb. It's certainly not without its flaws, but there's a lot to like here, and Venom as a character has a hell of a lot of potential, with more history and quality stories to mine than you might think.
The movie made over $800 million dollars on an estimated $100 million dollar budget. Unsurprisingly, a sequel is already in development (and Hardy has even signed on for a third movie in the franchise). Unsurprisingly, us comic book movie fans are entitled enough to demand our criticisms be acknowledged and rectified, so here we are...
10. The Age Rating
When the movie's audience rating was announced, concern was palpable. In the US, it's a PG-13 and in the UK, it has a 15 certificate. A more mature rating doesn't necessarily make a movie better, but given the character's aesthetics and, uh, horrifically violent nature, a proper reflection of those would go a long way.
Yes, changes are made all the time in movie adaptations of comic book properties, but would you deny John Constantine a cigarette? Or Iron Man his trademark snark? No!
It's not as if Venom fans are all rabid, violence-hungry monsters. We're just kids at heart. Kids with a simple dream of seeing Venom bite someone's head off on a giant cinema screen.