Beware the Black Suit Man
A Sony Cinematic Universe of Spider-man Characters Definitive List, Part 2
In the first part of our definitive list we covered the three worst films in the Sony Spider-man Universe of films, six movies the studio put out that were supposed to be part of a cinematic universe (but, realistically, were barely connected). With the release of the last of the films, Kraven The Hunter, Sony then called it quits and said, “we’re not doing any more of these. We’ll stick to animated films.” Audiences were relieved.
Still, not all the films Sony made were complete garbage. In this second half we’ll go over the three films that were at least somewhat worthwhile, even if only because the other three films were so atrocious by comparison.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
There’s a clear dividing line between the “good” Sony Spider-man Universe films and the “bad” ones. To be clear, none of these are really that great, but the three worst films are very much in their own category separated from the three better films, and the three better films all have one thing in common: they’re all Venom movies. With that said, all three Venom films do vary wildly in quality, and just because they’re “better” that doesn’t mean most of these movies are worth watching again. It’s different shades of mediocre, but that’s still better than the straight up awful films Sony has also made.
The worst of the three Venom films, by far, is Venom: Let the Be Carnage. This movie is an utter mess, formless and aimless, without much reason for it existing beyond, “that first Venom made a lot of money. Let’s make a sequel!” You can tell there was actual thought in the first film about how to make the movie work (and we’ll get to that movie soon), but the thought process that brought us this first sequel was far simpler. “Venom has a villain everyone loves named Carnage. Let’s just throw Carnage in a movie and it’ll make all the money ever.” Spoiler: it did not.
The movie is ostensibly about Venom hero Eddie Brock (played in all three films by Tom Hardy) working as a reporter, getting called in to interview a death row inmate, Cletus Kasady, for some reason. During their encounter, Cletus bites Eddie, and this is enough to transfer a small part of the Venom symbiote over to Cletus. This little bit becomes a new symbiote, Carnage, and with this new, powerful alien bonded to him, Cletus escapes prison, finds his lost lover, Shriek (Naomie Harris), and decides to terrorize Eddie. And all the while, Eddie and Venom have “marital” issues because this odd couple struggles to get along.
The key refrain for all of the Venom films is that they’re watchable because of the interactions between Eddie and Venom. At their best they’re buddy comedies playing a lot like romantic comedies except one is a human and the other is the alien symbiote bonded to them. The films get their best mileage out of the interactions between the two, their on-again, off-again, friendship, and the hijinks Eddie gets into because of Venom. It’s all very funny, when done right, and these two could power just about any film.
One major issue with Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is that the film separates them for long stretches, having the two get into a fight such that Venom storms off to live his own life (which makes no sense in the context of how the symbiotes work and what keeps them alive). Meanwhile, Carnage/Cletus is a nothing character that barely existed before this film, feels far too cartoony to be in this world, and really sucks the life out of every scene he’s in. That leaves us with a heroic duo that lacks their needed chemistry and a villain with no chemistry. This is a real dud of a film.
Still, with the capable directing of Andy Serkis (who is really too good to be slumming in this film) and the still decent acting from Hardy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is almost a watchable movie. I can almost see why people might like it, at least as a palate cleanser in comparison to the other, far more awful, films Sony put out in this loose series. It’s not good, but just the fact that there are far worse kind of redeems it a little.
Venom: The Last Dance
This third film in the Venom series feels like one step forward, one step back for the franchise. This film is even looser with its storytelling than the first sequel, and feels maybe even more aimless in a way. It’s a slapped together film that really shouldn’t work in any context… except somehow it almost nearly does. And, again, this is all due to the charismatic performance of lead actor Tom Hardy.
This film finds Eddie and Venom on the run from symbiote hunting aliens, as well as symbiote hunting humans. The humans want Venom so they can experiment on it. The aliens want to devour Venom so they can steal back the Codex that, we only now learn, is coded into the bond between Venom and Eddie. Because Eddie almost died once, and then was brought back by Venom, this somehow gives them a special bond that can be used and exploited to free an evil space villain, Null, who wants to… well, that’s actually not clear. Destroy the universe? Rule it. He’s bad, so he must be stopped. This leads Eddie and Venom on a road trip across the country to try and evade the aliens and get their life back on track.
There really isn’t much to Venom: The Last Dance beyond some fun and elaborate action sequences and the interaction between Eddie and Venom. On the one hand it does leave the film feeling slight and underbaked. On the other hand, though, the only things that really worked in these movies were the lead characters and the action sequences they constantly were put into. The fact that this film boils itself down to effectively those few moments really shows that the creators knew what worked and decided just to focus on that.
Maybe it doesn’t make for the best superhero film, but it does leave us with a collection of scenes that are enjoyable on their own and help to carry this film to the finish line. It’s a weaker film than the original Venom, sure, but there’s enough merit in Venom: The Last Dance that it’s hard to hate the film. At least it tried.
Venom
And now we get to, what I would argue is, the one good film in this whole cinematic universe experiment. You get the vibe from the whole series that Sony was trying to play by the MCU playbook: launch one successful character, show that they could work in the context of a superhero film, and then launch a bunch of other characters that could be tied in, around them should some kind of crossover film, say something starring the Sinister Six, got off the ground. It’s a good template to work off of, but the fact is that Sony started with probably the worst character they could to lead the whole thing: Venom.
Here’s the deal: Venom is actually great. Like, it’s not an artistically good movie. When Martin Scorsese complains that superhero films are roller coaster rides without artistic merit, all you have to do is look at Venom and think, “well, he has a point…” And yet, at the same time, Venom is delightfully, watchably stupid. It’s enjoyable despite the fact that it’s not an artistic piece of cinema. It’s butter and salt covered popcorn, full of flavor and empty calories, and you have a good time with it even though you know it’s bad for you. That’s shaky ground upon which to build a cinematic universe. Hell, as we just covered, it wasn’t even solid ground for two sequels. There isn’t enough meat here to hang a franchise.
Beyond that, though, Venom isn’t a team player. He barely gets along with Eddie in this film, and this one is probably the movie where their interactions are at their best. If he can barely work with his host, hardly getting the two of them to be a team as one, how was he supposed to tie into a team of anti-heroes and (maybe) villains for some larger threat. Ignore the fact that none of these films were ever established to exist in the same universe anyway (no matter what Sony said); even if you got over that, Venom was never going to work well with anyone else on screen. That’s just not his character.
This film, where Venom and Eddie have to learn to get along so they can take down an evil Elon Musk-type that has his own symbiote, works because it’s so messy. Venom is messy. Venom and Eddie are a mismatched pair (played perfectly in both roles by Hardy) that can barely keep their own shit together. There was no way they’d work in a Sinister Six team up, or any other for that matter. Sony really wanted their cinematic universe but this wasn’t the film to make it work. Except it was also the one, true hit they had, with this movie making $856.1 Mil at the Box Office. It was either build everything around Venom, because it was their first, best, and only success, or not build the cinematic universe at all. And while they tried, eventually they threw in the towel. Venom gave them hope, because it was watchable and everyone liked it, but this was the only one of the films that everyone could agree was actually kind of good.
So credit to Venom; it’s the top of the list. It’s just a pity Sony couldn’t see what they were actually building, getting lost and not seeing the forest for the trees. Yes, Spider-man films without Spidey could work. Once. Only because it was Venom. But there was no way that could be sustainable, especially with Z-grade characters no one had heard of, with bad production teams and scripts that completely didn’t understand the characters they were adapting. Venom overcame all that, becoming the one bright point in this whole franchise. None of the rest ever could.