What Critics HATED About Venom

5. The Writing Is TERRIBLE At Times

This is not a very well written movie at all. Sure, there's lots of pleasure to be had in the dynamic and dialogue between Venom and Brock (both in his head and out loud) but most of the characters are poorly written, most of the rest of the dialogue is rote or mind-numbing dumb and most of the motivations are entirely absent.

Brock is painted as an idiot for most of the movie, Michelle Williams' Annie floats in and out only as the plot requires and Riz Ahmed's sub-Elon Musk villain is a mess. Nothing any of them says to each other really rings true and it's only when Brock becomes completely self-aware and unhinged that his dialogue gets a logical context.

Whole plot elements are dropped or unexplored as something else becomes important and the over-riding feeling is that the script needed a lot more work.