Venom

Doomsday should had stayed at Warner Bros. At least they have Harry Potter. 

Just wait until you see the new Goosebumps trailer.

They're not doing PG-13 to be a safer box office bet. The R rating was reactionary to the success of Logan and Deadpool. They want PG-13 now because they're worried that if it's Rated R, there won't be any chance at all that Marvel/Disney will allow it to be apart of the MCU. From where I'm standing, the very notion that they think they have a chance to begin with is silly, but who knows? Maybe they've been having perceived successful talks in the background.

I remember some of those leaked emails back during the big hack. I didn't read many, but one that left a bit of an impression on me was one by some exec who said he was frustrated that his studio couldn't be the one to come up with something new, innovative, and original "like The Hunger Games" (neveryoumind that The Hunger Games wasn't new or original because it was based on a novel, not to mention it was derivative of various sources, but that's another discussion). This really underlined a frustration I have had with Sony at the very least since The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out: They don't come off as creators, they come off as leeches who ride the trendy train (to a lesser extent I feel the same about Lionsgate).

Just looking at those Amazing Spider-Man movies, one can tell they weren't sure what that franchise should have been. The first one is very derivative of the "grounded" (or as grounded as a fantasy superhero movie can be) style of The Dark Knight trilogy and to a lesser extent the teen angst drama of Twilight, and while I think it has its charms, it still doesn't seem sure of itself in places. The second turns a one-eighty and tries to ape the MCU without really understanding it and struggles to fit itself in with the story it set up in the last one. That one is a fucking mess.

Then I look at last year's Jumanji movie, which was a huge hit for them so kudos for that. But while I enjoyed that movie quite a bit, one thing that always crossed my mind while watching it is that it's inception really comes off as them dusting off an old nostalgic IP, making it trendy by following the charts of what's kewl, and just making something and seeing who bites. The fact that they made a pretty enjoyable movie somewhere during that road seems like an accident.

So that's my impression of Sony: They accidentally make good movies sometimes. Jumanji 3 has a lot of pressure on it to prove the second one wasn't a fluke, but I'm not convinced that it wasn't. So despite having some admiration for two Jumanji movies so far, forgive me for not being all that hyped for another.

Venom was almost poised to be another happy accident. It seems like originally it was them doing their copycat thing again by making an R-rated superhero movie to leech off of Deadpool and Logan, but in making an R-rated Venom movie that could have been poised to launch an R-rated universe of anti-hero films they could have potentially been tapping into a market that studios have been ignoring. Fox made R-rated X-Men films, true, but the primary X-Men audience was always PG-13. If Venom somehow connected they could have had an audience that likes their films edgy, crude, violent, and wants to see some fucking heads roll. And if Venom was accidentally a good movie as well, even better! But by editing down to a PG-13 that audience will turn its back on this film, because it's no longer the film they want. All they're doing is appealing to kids who think that they're getting away with seeing that kind of film.

Venom smells like another Mummy in the making. It might wind up fine, but it's really not off to a good first impression.

I do love Baby Driver. I'll give them that.

Neat? Congratulations? What's supposed to be my reaction?

PG-13

The review embargo has now been lifted, and the bashing has begun.  Venom is reportedly a turd in the wind.

It's true what a lot of critics have echoed that everything about this feels like a crappy superhero movie from 2004 that has learned nothing from the last decade of superior movies. Even that poster above looks like a crappy mid-2000s effort.

And to think they could have at least gone all out with the horror aspect with an R-Rating. That would have been some better campy fun. Tom Hardy has come out and said that all of his favorite scenes that he shot were cut out of the final edit. While I doubt all if it would have made it in, he also claims it was 30-40 minutes worth. Who knows what of all that is attributed to the PG-13 rating. Execs are trying to claim it was never on the table. However if that were the case, Tom Hardy is essentially saying they have just done a terrible job editing the film.

Amy Pascal and Sony have to be completely out of their minds to believe Kevin Feige would allow this movie to join the MCU. For that matter, the near last-minute change to PG-13 under the belief that it could, shows how clueless Sony is when it comes to the quality of their movies.

All of the producers' statements about it never being a possibility for an R-Rating makes me believe everything is being covered up. Everyone was talking about it for ages. The director was talking about how they were planning graphic scenes of faces being eaten and brains being sucked out.

*shrugs* Either way, I guess. Still going to check it out tomorrow. Hopefully I come out at least pleasantly amused with such low expectations.