Film Preview: Venom (2018)

Page Revisions:

(February 11, 2018) Original
(April 29, 2018) New Trailer (#2) / New Poster (#2)
(August 5, 2018) New Trailer (#3) / New Poster (#3)
(September 30, 2018) New Posters (#4-#10) / Updated Plot Description

Release Date:

October 5, 2018

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “This plot is unknown.”

Poster Rating: D+ / B / C / B- / C- / D+ / C+ / D+ / C- / B

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Review: (#1) If you recognize the Venom eyes, this poster will be somewhat exciting to you. For everyone else, it’s utterly dull.

(#2) If you’re already familiar with the character, this design has a lot of relevance and is quite compelling. For the uninitiated, it isn’t particularly instructive.

(#3) Once again, only those familiar with the character will be interested and while this is a somewhat gross aberration, it’s not much of a sales tool.

(#4) This is a most visceral design and it seems to be picking up on the World Cup furor as a sales tool. That doesn’t have much to do with the film, which makes interesting, but forgettable. (#5) If you have a fascination with paint-splatter art, this might appeal to you, but it’s little more than an embodiment of the Venom visage without enticement. (#6) More Venom artwork that might appeal to fans of the characters, but won’t sell tickets. (#7) This at least explains the relationship between symbiote and host, but that’s about all it does. (#8) More Venom art and more wastes of poster design space. (#9) A little more contained than the other splatter designs, this IMAX poster will appeal to fans, but few else. (#10) Now we have a traditional poster with too many details, all a bit over-structured.

Trailer Rating: C+ / B / B

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Review: (#1) It’s just a teaser, so it’s no surprise that there’s not enough detail being presented, but as it stands now, it looks like a second-rate comic book adaptation rather than a major motion picture.

(#2) Now that we’re given story and a better glimpse of our anti-hero, things are starting to fall into place with regard to how interesting the film looks. Tom Hardy definetely seems to be trying to give us two distinct and fascinating versions of the alien-induced split personalities, and that might just be enough to pull the film away from the potentially ruinous commonality required for superhero films.

(#3) Another trailer that puts the same stakes out there, though in an admittedly more aggressive and violent manner. Whether this will encourage people to head the cinema or not remains to be seen.