The first teaser for Venom (2018) has arrived after more than a decade of build up towards its release and great doubt it would ever come to be.
Rumors of a film starring the now-famous Spider-Man villain Venom have been circulating for more than a decade. Venom made his on-screen debut in 2007 with Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 and, ever since, producer Avi Arad has been itching to give this character what he believes is a proper rendition. The Spider-Man film franchise has had a twisted history. It has been rebooted multiple times over, its first two attempts having been canceled before seeing their conclusions. Will this fresh start with Venom finally give Sony and the Spider-Man franchise what they need to be successful independent of Marvel Studios and the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
What The Teaser Says About Venom So Far
Venom (2018) stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. He is shown in the teaser suffering from grief and loss prior to being hospitalized himself. He walks around alone and brooding. Shadows are cast over him. His likely love interest, Ann Weying (Michelle Williams), seems to play a more challenging role in his life than a supportive one. One thing is certain: the black alien goo in Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) of the Life Foundation’s possession is going to play a part in Eddie’s life very soon.
The teaser draws on elements of horror with an ominous tone all throughout. The Venom teaser starts with an MRI scan. The results are not shown. Brock is then shown as a loner, moving slowly through the streets of San Fransisco with his head hung low. As Tom Hardy provides a voiceover to set the dower and dismal tone of the film, Ann Weying is portrayed as likely more well-off and better put together than Brock. People clad in hazmat suits converge on a large crash just before Carlton Drake is shown overzealously presenting his alien prize to a crowd of doting scientists or doctors. All of this is sewn together with intermittent shots of Eddie Brock slowly waking in his hospital bed, culminating in an unexpected and terrifying convulsion reminiscent of the worst kinds of nightmares.
The trailer concludes with the frightening face of Venom drawn in a green smoke. Having not made an actual appearance in the trailer, the symbiotic terror is still felt all along. Twice in the teaser, massive objects are blasted apart from one another inexplicably. Both times, Eddie Brock is shown either directly present or juxtaposed to the shot, indicating he has something to do with the phenomenon. Audiences unfamiliar with the source material, or even passingly so, may be confused by what they see. The glaring absence of the titular character has the potential to both concern viewers that the monster will not feature prominently, and excite them that the big reveal will be in true horror fashion.
The Greater Context
The Venom Symbiote traditionally makes its host erratic, angry, and violent. There is no telling what effect it would have on somebody who already exhibits those qualities. It is difficult to discern from this teaser what direction the movie intends to take the lore of the character. What is certain, however, is the intention to make Venom as much a horror film as can be. The teaser does not portray the upcoming film as horrifying in nature. It is still intent on relying on action for much of its appeal and direction. That is a chief concern.
Avi Arad was a producer on Spider-Man 3 in 2007, but he was unsatisfied with the tame nature of Venom in that film. He wanted to make the character more terrifying and set out to do so with a Venom-centric film ever since. The movie now set to release October 5 of 2018 is the result of a single man’s passion more than any other reason. On one hand, passion for creating a new take on a familiar character can provide incredible results. Fox’s Logan (2017) and Deadpool (2016) are examples in the comic book realm of what passion can produce. They showed great success possible when the sub-genre is expanded beyond pure action and only came to be because of the passion Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds respectively to have the films be unique in their tones.
On the other hand, Arad is a producer, not an actor, with deep ties to Sony and its executives. Spider-Man film franchises have had poor track records thus far. Spider-Man 3‘s marginal success led to the cancelation of future planned sequels while The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s attempt to jumpstart a shared universe of Spider-Man related films failed entirely. Now, Venom is poised to serve as a starting point for another attempt at a full franchise. This can either launch an exciting new era for Sony and its Spider-Man related films, or, it may well suffer the same fate as the myriad other franchises that have attempted shared universes a la Marvel only to double back on their efforts such as Universal’s Dark Universe and Hasbro’s recently dialed back shared universe plans.
The Eight-Legged Question
Aside from the glaring lack of Venom in this teaser is the lingering absence of the character most central to the original story of Venom, Spider-Man. This teaser gave no indication as to whether Venom in this new film will have any relation with Spider-Man, whether that be existing renditions of the character or otherwise. In the comic books Venom originated in, Venom came to be only after the symbiote first attached itself to Peter Park and Spider-Man. Much of the character and its characteristics are a result of that initial relationship. There is ample proof in the more recent renditions of the character, both in comics and in television, that Venom can be a successful and promising character without Spider-Man. But, the popular recognition of the character is as he relates to Spider-Man. This is likely to have an effect on both the final outcome and perspective of the film. For better or worse is still uncertain.
Marvel’s film head Kevin Feige and former Sony Pictures chair and Venom producer Amy Pascal have had a debacle over this subject. Pascal had initially indicated that the new movie would exist in the same universe as Marvel Studio’s cinematic universe. This came after a groundbreaking deal gave Marvel Studios joint rights over the Spider-Man character. However, Kevin Feige had to walk back this statement and explain that Venom would have no relation to the ongoing Spider-Man character. Speculation is still rampant, and only time will tell what relationship Venom will have with either Tom Holland’s rendition of Spider-Man or the character altogether.
Venom
It is still too early to tell much about the direction Venom is taking. It has a strong cast and the potential for a unique direction for the film to take. Venom is not the only upcoming comic book property to delve into horror, with Fox’s New Mutants arriving in February 2019. But, with New Mutants having been delayed from an original late 2018 release, Venom has the opportunity now to strike first.
Not seeing Venom appear in the teaser leaves much to be desired, but, the preview provides enough to satiate some of the fears that the film would simply never see the light of day. But, perhaps that is the point. Venom is meant to be a dark, scary take on a character that is truly dastardly and horrifying. This marketing could be seen as missed potential. But, it can also be seen as prolonging the anticipation and shock the film has the potential to deliver when it releases October 5, 2018.
Jason wants to tell you about his current job, but he’s afraid that it might be more trouble than it’s worth. When not writing, Jason works on food justice and sharing music with communities throughout the region. Or he’s unlocking Xbox achievements.