'Venom' shows its fanged face in first full-length trailer — to mixed reviews
Spider-Man may be swinging into action alongside Earth’s Mightiest Heroes in this Friday’s Avengers: Infinity War, but that doesn’t mean his own adversaries are just sitting around twiddling their thumbs. That’s particularly true with regards to Venom, the black alien symbiote who has long proved one of the wall-crawler’s greatest nemesis. Following a tantalizing tease, the beast finally shows his monstrous true form in the first full-length trailer for Venom. And so far, his stand-alone saga is inspiring a very mixed reaction from fans — save for universal objection to the film’s pronunciation of a key term.
Arriving in theaters in October, Venom will be an origin story for the interstellar creature, which is obtained by an evil corporation run by Dr. Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) and subsequently grafts itself onto Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), an investigative reporter who sticks his nose in the wrong place. Brock is soon hearing Venom’s voice in his head, as well as benefiting from its powers, which include the use of fearsome tendril-y tentacles that help him fell adversaries and stay on his speeding motorcycle. Though the character is normally portrayed as a villain, the clip above makes plain that in this version, he’ll be functioning as more of a malevolent antihero, with Brock trying to wield his abilities for good while also attempting to maintain his relationship with his girlfriend (played by Michelle Williams).
Having now gotten a look at Venom in all his fanged glory, Marvel die-hards took to social media to voice their feelings about the upcoming project. For some, it appears Sony’s latest tease is an outright winner:
@BigOleDab DUDE I'M SO EXCITED FOR THIS MY INNER FANBOY IS SCREAMING
— Omar (@OhOmah) April 24, 2018
Oh my god. That transformation at the end. So much yes.
— Justin Alvira (@EliteOmegaZeroX) April 24, 2018
THEY DID VENOM JUSTICE. IT LOOKS LIKE SO MUCH FUN.
— james (@BigOleDab) April 24, 2018
This gave me some serious chills. I cannot wait!!!
— Zahra A (@_Zahra_89) April 24, 2018
Others continued to object to the absence of Spider-Man, who in the comics is the first host for the Venom symbiote (hence why the creature looks like a dark, mutated version of the hero):
Ya know a trailer speaks out for a movie and fact that this is supposed to be about Eddie Brock. I mean he gets the power when Spider-Man gets it off him and attaches to Eddie. What is this? Seriously? How do you mess this up? Spider-Man 3 did it better pic.twitter.com/W4nR96ndiI
— TheAbysmalFreak (@FreakGeek97) April 24, 2018
Yes it venom looks great. But you can't have venom with out spiderman. It's like having superman with out krypton or batman with out bruce Wayne parents dying. He's a massive part of venoms story #WeAreVenom
— Tim Stone (@jedikillinmofo8) April 24, 2018
yo where spider man at
— dan? (@DanVisuals) April 24, 2018
Many thought the trailer indicated that the film would be another swing and a miss for Sony:
So looking like 0-2 on the Venom movie thing … so it goes.
— Brian Hancock (@bwhancock) April 24, 2018
this looks awful.
— Hzaa (@imHzaa) April 24, 2018
This #Venom trailer makes me angry. Its terrible. The Venom looks like "PLASTIC". Couldn't they same CGI they used in SpiderMan 3? I'm not stuck in the past, no pic.twitter.com/IxtJtnaDA2
— wiredmartian (@wiredmartian) April 24, 2018
I don't know. I wanted to have a feeling like, Venom looks cool or amazing, but I'm not feeling it. I'm sorry but I'm just not feeling it. Its only the first trailer so lets hope it gets better.
— Woody (@WoodySaucedo) April 24, 2018
However, there was a general consensus about the way Jenny Slate says the word symbiote, which everyone agreed was incorrect:
sim-bye-OAT???
— Pawn (@JOBNUMBER) April 24, 2018
@adotbair @PlaystationBrah I’m down but it’s bugging me how she says symbiote lol
— Brandon Murphy (@bmurphy28) April 24, 2018
The Venom design is cool! Not a fan of how they pronounced symbiote. But I’ll go see it. It will be weird seeing it and not seeing Spider-Man. Unless they add him in somehow.
— Ark Blue (@TheArkBlue) April 24, 2018
Looked generic until last scene also please re do the symbiote pronunciation!!!!
— Golden Snitch (@SirGoldenSnitch) April 24, 2018
Directed by Ruben Fleischer, Venom hits theaters Oct. 5.
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