As the movie that kickstarted a Marvel series that made close to $2 billion at the box office - and brought one of the most defining on-screen versions of a key Spider-Man character to date - the sheer difference betweenVenom’s critic and audience reviews feels all the wilder to me all these years later. The Venom comics are, at their best, able to balance pure nightmare fuel with heartwarming stories and a touch of comedy to round things out - often all at the same time. As such, the prospect of the Spider-Man villain getting his own movie series as well was always one that had its own inherent promise.
Whilethe Venom movie seriesisn’t perfect, it offers a comprehensive look at the odd yet endearing bond between Eddie Brock and his symbiote ally. Though flaws are present, the story manages to balance a considerable amount of heart alongside action sequences and moments that see Tom Hardy’s Brock do things like fling himself into a lobster tank. Given the first movie netted itself a box office result that wasn’t that far off $1 billion - and given the reactions to the series concluding - it’s all the more striking to look at just how different the receptions forVenomitself were.
Venom’s Critic & Audience Review Scores Are 50% Different
Several years afterVenom’s 2018 release - and several months afterVenom: The Last Dance’s endingfinished off the franchise in 2024 - the first movie in the Marvel antihero series has some very divided review scores.Rotten Tomatoes’Tomatometer and Popcornmeter results - which reflect critic reviews and audience reviews respectively - come in at a 30% audience score and 80% audience score forVenom, marking a full 50% difference between the two.
Since this is half of the maximum overall 100% score possible to give, it’s a decidedly noteworthy contrast, particularly since the film also went on to be notably financially lucrative in terms of its box office results. Not every movie that nets itself a considerable box office remains one held in high regard, of course - asSuicide Squadcan attest - but the factVenombirthed its own trilogy of movies that did reasonably respectably overall makes this difference in perspectives all the more interesting.
While a superhero movie releasing on streaming can often change its overall Rotten Tomatoes scores - as it becomes more accessible to more prospective viewers, who may find themselves pleasantly surprised by the release - these scores have been relatively consistent sinceVenom’s release.The Wayback Machineshows only minor changes in this regard over time - though they do show the gap was at points even wider between what critics and the general public thought of the film, with the audience score at one point being 89%, marking an almost 60% difference between the two different receptions.
Why Venom’s Critic & Audience Review Scores Are So Different
As it stands, it seems there are a fair few reasons thatVenomhas such a drastic difference between its critic and audience review scores. For starters, it’s worth noting that this trend is one that can be observed to a varying degree throughout the franchise and its 7 year-long run. The final installment in the series -Venom: The Last Dance- has similar scores, with a 41% review score for critics and 80% for the broader public. ForVenom: Let There Be Carnage, a smaller distance between the two scores emerged, with a 58% critic score and 84% audience score.
As such, it’s clear this is a reflection of the series as a whole versus justVenomitself. It’s also one that potentially looks at the overarchingSony Spider-Man Universe, which arguably hinged around Venom, but without the movies ever really expanding into any other connecting films, even as other installments in the live-action franchise appeared. With this in mind, critics may have been ostensibly more inclined to focus on the bigger picture, and findVenom’s more playful handling of the superhero genre and the franchise it found itself within a waste of some potential.
Venom: The Last Dancenetting a lower critic review score could be partially explained by this perspective, as decisions like introducing Knull were viewed with more negativity since this would be the trilogy’s final installment.
On a level more focused on the movie in question alone,it makes sense that critics would find more issue with the tone and content withinVenom, which avoids taking itself too seriouslyeven when it comes to topics like exploring the main lore of the series, and which plays up some of the silliness inherent within the superhero genre and translating comic characters into live-action. Similarly, the issues commonly cited with the film are likely to be more jarring for critics who are potentially more focused on said complications due to the nature of their work, versus those watching it just for fun.
The Difference Between Venom’s Review Scores Shows What Made The Trilogy Work
All in all,the Venom series' success has hinged on being a more lighthearted and relaxed superhero fare, even as its plot features nightmarish aliens aplenty. With many superhero films either reaching for a totally family-friendly tone or an otherwise grimdark take on things, the Venom trilogy offered something different for audiences, and something that delved into the dramatic but also playful territory that meant viewers could enjoy it as the action romp it was intended to be, without having to necessarily think about things like a wider franchise.
Though this approach also appears to play a considerable role in what alienates critics from the releases, it doesn’t seem that courting the highest critical reviews was ever the intention with the series - and indeed, it doesn’t appear this had a negative impact on its financial results. The Venom trilogy earned $1.8 billion from its overall worldwide box office (as perThe Numbers), with the installment rated lowest by critics of the trilogy - that ofVenomitself - bringing in over $800 million of those results.
All in all, the review scores forVenombeing what they are - as wildly and drastically different as the results are - serves to highlight that superhero movies don’t have to be the dramatic and critic-favored tour de forces likeAvengers: EndgameorJokerto net favor with the general public as a fun piece of entertainment. With the adventures of Tom Hardy’s Venom having seemingly come to an end, it will be interesting to see what installments may potentially fill this space in the genre as time goes on.
Venom
Cast
Venom is an action sci-fi movie that stars Tom Hardy as the titular Marvel anti-hero. When the Life Foundation begins experimenting on alien lifeforms they find on a comet that landed nearby, Investigative Journalist Eddie Brock begins to investigate them. When an infiltration goes wrong, Eddie finds that one of the aliens has bonded to him, forcing him to learn to live with his new uninvited host. Giving him superhuman powers, the two begin to work together to stop the rest of the symbiote’s invasive species.
