‘Venom’: First Reactions from the Premiere

Venom has been unleashed.

Tom Hardy’s comic book movie premiered Monday night at the Regency Village Theater in Westwood, Calif. — and the early reactions for the film are coming in on social media. The film stars Hardy as Eddie Brock, a man who bonds with an alien symbiote to become the anti-hero Venom.

Reviews for the film don’t publish until Tuesday night at 7 p.m. PT, so this is the first time people have been weighing in on the project that also stars Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Jenny Slate, Woody Harrelson and Scott Haze.

Venom opens Friday.

Tom Hardy’s performance in #Venom is either Johnny Depp in the first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN or Chris Klein in STREET FIGHTER: THE LEGEND OF CHUN-LI. Either way, it’s not boring.

— Scott Mendelson (@ScottMendelson) October 2, 2018

Action-sequences and Eddie and Venom’s odd relationship are the highlights of #Venom but if Sony wants to move forward with a universe, it needs to just keep the few parts that work and scrap the large portion which does t.

— Brandon Davis (@BrandonDavisBD) October 2, 2018

Significant chunks of #Venom don’t work *at all* but there is some serious charm to the Eddie/Venom relationship. Not sure I had the intended reactions to some scenes but fun is fun – even when it’s totally ridiculous, right? It’s too bad they didn’t go for the R rating though.

— Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) October 2, 2018

Social embargo for #Venom is up. I talk about this a lot in my review but this is a movie that somehow slipped through a wormhole from 2004. That’s my biggest take. It’s a movie that spilled from the pre-MCU era through a crack in time and space.

— The Mothmeg NYCC (@rustypolished) October 2, 2018

#Venom is a one-man buddy film bonded with an antihero origin story. And Tom Hardy pulls it off like only he can pic.twitter.com/d2AblUvWjF

— Chris Sylvia (@sylvioso) October 2, 2018

Sorry to say that #Venom is pretty much a complete failure – a tonal mess that feels 15 years old, ignoring the storytelling strides that the superhero genre has made in recent years.

A few fun Venom-centric moments aside, it has nearly nothing to offer. Don’t get your hopes up.

— Tom Horrorgensen (@Tom_Jorgensen) October 2, 2018

I’m *fascinated* with VENOM. The cast seems to all know they’re in a darker superhero movie, except Tom Hardy who is basically remaking Jim Carrey’s Liar Liar. I kinda loved watching this movie, in a Rocky Horror type of way. At one point Tom Hardy and Venom make out.

— Mike Ryan (@mikeryan) October 2, 2018

I enjoyed #Venom. It reminds me of a ’90s Nicolas Cage movie in the sense that it’s an Oscar-caliber actor going all-in on outlandish premise and the end result a highly watchable curiosity

— Aaron Couch (@AaronCouch) October 2, 2018