Unpacking ‘Venom’: Secret Success, Or A Turd In The Wind? [Podcast]

Welcome to another addition of The Playlist Podcast, the show where we discuss film reviews, film news, pop culture, and contemplate bringing an alien race of parasites to Earth. You know, the usual.

On this episode, I’m joined once again by Playlist Managing Editor Charles Barfield, and today, we’re unfortunately not reviewing “A Star is Born” (as neither of us have had a chance to see it yet), but discussing “Venom,” the Ruben Fleischer-directed film based on the popular “Spider-Man” villain.

We recount in the episode that while fans of the character – portrayed in the film by Tom Hardy – likely remained optimistic, the rest of us we’re not impressed with the trailers, TV spots, or any of the other marketing. It depicted a dour, routine origin story that looked like the best comic book movie that 2003 never made (the corporate tie-in with Brisk Lemonade and the Eminem song in the end credits don’t help, either). We can say with certainty that a lot of that exists in “Venom,” and our individual enjoyment of the film differs, but the one thing we both agree on is that the committed, delicious performance from Hardy keeps this from being a complete disaster. As usual with these reviews, we give our initial spoiler-free thoughts, and at the 21:26 mark, we get into a ***SPOILER*** discussion. Admittedly, there isn’t much to spoil, but if you want to go in pure, that’s your cue to turn away. We also discuss the possibilities of a sequel, and plea that Sony learns the right lessons from this film, i.e. just letting Tom Hardy to his thing and keep the cameras rolling.

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