Recently, I finally got around to seeing Venom: The Last Dance. I never saw the movie when it came out in theaters because I had very little faith in the franchise after Venom: Let There Be Carnage, one of my least favorite comic book movies to come out in the era of comic books movies. Unfortunately, I paid a steep and overpriced four dollars to rent Venom: The Last Dance right before it came on Netflix. The movie was not worth the time or four whole dollars I spent on it. I genuinely would have rather stared at my reflection in the TV.
I know, my opinion about the movie is very strong. I do understand why some people like it. Action comedy is a very popular genre, but it very infrequently hits the spot for me especially when it's limited by the PG-13 rating. There are definitely some I like, although I can’t think of any other than the Deadpool franchise right now and that’s rated R. Action comedy can work, but the last two Venom movies did not.
A lot of fans of Venom’s character had a problem with the way he was portrayed. If you told me fifteen years ago I’d see Venom in a dance sequence in Las Vegas with the woman who works at the gas station near Eddie Brock’s house in the third Venom movie, I would have called you a liar. If you told me Venom would be cracking jokes and telling Eddie he takes him “to all of the finest places” after eating a few heads with no blood, I’d tell you it makes no sense for Venom to say such a thing. If you told me Venom would envelop a horse, giving it symbiote powers and abilities then shout, “Now that’s horsepower,” I’d do everything I could to stop the movie from being made.
Simply put, that's not the Venom we know from the comics.
Of course, the movies definitely have their fans. The first movie, the best of the trilogy, made about eight hundred fifty million dollars, the second made about five hundred million, and the last made about four hundred million. Clearly, the more they leaned into the strange romantic comedy side of it, the less money they made, but there were still those that wanted to see all three.
Earlier this month, Venom co-creator Todd McFarlane commented on the changes he would have made if the movies were in his hands, saying, "I would have Venom. Would have been an R rated movie if they had said, 'Todd, putting you in charge.' But nobody asked. So that's okay. Yeah, they try to make them very relatable. Again, again. Everybody has a business and they're trying to do the best they can their businesses, and they want to have as broad an audience as possible, right?"
He isn’t wrong. Sony definitely made Venom PG-13 to reach a broader audience, but I imagine, just like Deadpool, Deadpool 2, and Deadpool & Wolverine, the movies would have made more and more money as they went assuming the sequels didn’t come with a large drop in quality, if they were rated R.
Giving Venom the R rating allows the character to be what it actually is in the comics: a dark, hulking, vicious monster. Can this be done without the R rating? Yes, but it would certainly limit the fear factor as shockingly gruesome moments are hard to come by in PG-13 movies.
I have nothing against Tom Hardy as an actor. In fact, I think he is a brilliant actor and does amazing in just about everything he’s in. He was amazing in The Revenant, great in Legend, and, regardless of how you feel about the movie, he gave a solid performance in The Dark Knight Rises. He plays the version of Eddie Brock he wants to play very well. However, that’s not the version of Eddie Brock I think should be in the MCU. They could keep him around to play a different version of the same character, something I think he could do very well, but I think continuing any association with the Sony version of Venom in the MCU will immediately put a lot of fans off and cost Sony or Disney or both money.
It’s time to let a new actor take on the role of Eddie Brock, something that could happen outside of the MCU if Sony doesn’t want to lease the character to Disney. In fact, it may actually be better to keep that character away from the larger MCU. The problem with the movies was that they were silly, goofy, and zany, a few words that frequently define the MCU, when it should have been dark, scary, and violent. However, it does seem like the MCU is willing to embrace the darker side of comic book stories as Daredevil: Born Again first reactions are indicating it will be a dark series, and The Punisher is getting his own Special Presentation that will no doubt lead to a series. Maybe if the MCU was willing to let Venom be dark, it could work.
Some could say it’s too soon to bring on a new actor to play a character audiences have seen very recently, but that’s not something audiences aren’t used to. Within two years, Batman was theatrically played by Robert Pattinson, Michael Keaton, and Ben Affleck. That’s not saying The Flash is a prime example of money making material, but still. If a reboot of the Venom franchise was announced today, the studio would have to work out whether they want to lease the character to Disney, find a director, writers, cast, crew, actually write the script, film the movie, edit, etcetera. It would be several years until the reboot could actually happen and, if it’s different enough, like Pattinson and Reeves’ The Batman was different enough from anything Affleck related, audiences would accept it.
What do you think? Should a darker, R rated Venom movie be worked on? Let me know!