{"id":20238,"date":"2018-12-24T11:49:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T19:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=20238"},"modified":"2018-12-24T11:50:17","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T19:50:17","slug":"review-venom-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2018\/12\/review-venom-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Venom Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Venom<\/em><\/strong> had the right ingredients from an incredibly talented actor starring, a multi Oscar-nominated actress in the love interest role and an interesting anti-hero in the form of black goo. Unfortunately, the execution wasn\u2019t the best.<\/p>\n

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Venom<\/span>
\n(2018)<\/span>
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Genre(s): <\/strong>Science Fiction, Action, Horror
\nSony | PG13 \u2013 112 min. \u2013 $38.99 | December 18, 2018<\/p>\n

Date Published:<\/strong> 12\/24\/2018 | Author:<\/strong> The Movieman<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Directed by: <\/strong>Ruben Fleischer
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>Jeff Pinkner & Scott Rosenberg (screen story), Jeff Pinkner & Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/strong>Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate, Melora Walters, Woody Harrelson<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
DISC INFO:
\n<\/u><\/strong>Features: <\/strong>Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Trivia Track
\nSlip Cover: <\/strong>Yes
\nDigital Copy: <\/strong>Yes
\nFormats Included: <\/strong>Blu-ray, DVD
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Audio: <\/strong>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (DTS-HD MA 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, French, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/strong>44.2 GB
\nCodecs: <\/strong>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
\nThe opinions I share are my own.<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE \u2014 2.5\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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There might be one good outcome with the terrible first trailer for Venom<\/em><\/strong>: it certainly lowered my expectations to the point where it barely met that low bar. What the movie showed me is how well oiled a machine the proper Marvel Studios are and, save for Spider-Man: Homecming<\/em>, the Sony Marvel and Fox Marvel (which will be wrapped into Marvel Studios in the next couple of years) have somewhat been unsuccessful in their outputs.<\/p>\n

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The plot of Venom<\/em> <\/strong>focuses on beat reporter Eddie Brock (TOM HARDY) who is down and almost out following being fired after going up against billionaire \u201cphilanthropist\u201d Carlton Drake (RIZ AHMED). Brock not only loses his job, but also his lawyer fianc\u00e9 Anne (MICHELLE WILLIAMS) after he betrays her trust, as she is part of the team defending Drake against a lawsuit resulting from the crash landing of a spaceship carrying alien symbiotes, one which is on the loose and others taken back to Drake\u2019s labs to be experimented on, and eventually duping down and out people for human trials.<\/p>\n

Brock\u2019s life changes when one of the escaped symbiotes, named Venom (also voiced by Tom Hardy), makes its way to San Francisco and, after being snuck into Drake\u2019s science complex by a disillusioned scientist (JENNY SLATE), tries to rescue those in captivity, resulting in the Venom symbiote being transferred to Brock, thus transforming him into a lean and mean fighting machine… being controlled by a black oozy alien.<\/p>\n

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Of course, Drake, who has not found any success with pairing the symbiote with humans, as he for some reason wants to remake the world into… aliens or for money? I have no f\u2019ing clue to be honest what his motivations, though nothing new as Venom, later in the movie, decides he likes our world and Brock himself, turns from villain to anti-hero. Whatever. Soon, Drake himself gets his own symbiote, the evil Riot hell-bent on bringing its kind and taking over the planet. Cue CGI vs. CGI battle.<\/p>\n

Although I wasn\u2019t exactly looking forward to seeing Venom<\/em><\/strong>, and the first trailer was bad, I had some interest if only for Tom Hardy who is one hell of an actor and I don\u2019t care what people say, I did like his performance as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises<\/em> (and at the very least, atoned for the terrible version seen in Batman & Robin<\/em>). Here, although whatever that voice he used was odd, it wasn\u2019t as grating as I feared but unfortunately he is saddled with a half-baked script.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the supporting cast doesn\u2019t have much to contribute. Michelle Williams might not play a bystander character, she didn\u2019t seem have much to offer, albeit Anne isn\u2019t much of a character anyway. Riz Ahmed was alright in Rogue One<\/em>, but as the film\u2019s villain, he was rather terrible and even by forgettable Marvel (Fox, Sony and Marvel proper alike) antagonists, he\u2019s one of the worst of the bunch, and as I mentioned, Drake\u2019s motivations weren\u2019t entirely clear, more power I guess?<\/p>\n

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Venom<\/em><\/strong> was under the direction of Ruben Fleischer, a filmmaker with a mixed resume. After garnering praise and a cult following with Zombieland<\/em>, his follow-ups 30 Minutes or Less<\/em> and Gangster Squad<\/em> weren\u2019t critical darlings, albeit I did enjoy both of the films, so from that front, this was disappointing as Fleischer is certainly a capable director, but saddled with both a bad script \u2014written by Jeff Pinkner (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle<\/em>, The Amazing Spider-Man 2<\/em>), Scott Rosenberg (Gone in Sixty Seconds<\/em>) and Kelly Marcel (Fifty Shades of Grey<\/em>) \u2014 and limited budget making this visual effects extravaganza film seem to be something coming from the early 2000s, a big problem when your title character is almost complete CGI.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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This release comes with a semi-glossy slip cover<\/strong>. Inside contains the redemption code for the Digital HD<\/strong> copy.<\/p>\n

Venom Mode<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 This is a pop-up trivia track that plays along with the movie providing information on the production as well as the source material.<\/p>\n

Deleted & Extended Scenes (5:00; HD)<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 Here we get three scenes either excised or cut down including an extension of the mid-credit scene.<\/p>\n

From Symbiote to Screen (20:03; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a look at the comic book origins of Venom and company and adapting him for the big screen and includes interviews with Tom Hardy, Ruben Fleischer and even Kevin Smith amongst others.<\/p>\n

The Anti-Hero (10:01; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a character featurette on both Eddie Brock and Venom and has the same interview participants from the previous featurette.<\/p>\n

The Lethal Protector in Action (9:14; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a cool behind-the-scenes featurette looking at the filming of the action sequences.<\/p>\n

Venom Vision (7:02; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a featurette on director Ruben Fleischer\u2019s approach to making the film.<\/p>\n

Designing Venom (5:34; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is on the visual effects design behind the character and keeping it as close to the comics as possible.<\/p>\n

Symbiote Secrets (2L40; HD)<\/u><\/strong> is a short production featurette looking at some of the visual easter eggs.<\/p>\n

Select Scenes Pre-Vis (13:53; HD)<\/u><\/strong> \u2013 There are visual effects to final film comparisons for 8 scenes.<\/p>\n

Music Videos (7:45; HD)<\/u><\/strong> are available for \u2018Venom\u2019 by Eminem and \u2018Sunflower\u2019 by Post Malone, Swae Lee for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lastly there is a Sneak Peek (3:34; HD)<\/u><\/strong> for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse<\/em> which also played at the end of Venom<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Previews<\/strong> \u2013 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse<\/em>, Alpha<\/em>, The Front Runner<\/em>, The Girl in the Spider\u2019s Web<\/em>, Searching<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 4.5\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Venom<\/em><\/strong> bites off the head of the Blu-ray where the film is presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. No real surprise, but the picture does look great in HD where detail is sharp throughout and despite the darkness of the film, due to many scenes taking place at night (likely to hide some of the poorer CGI shots), there are some splashes of color and skin tones do appear natural looking. There were no apparent signs of artifacts, aliasing or banding.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 4.25\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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The disc includes a solid enough though nothing mind-blowing DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (I believe the 4K UHD comes with an Atmos track, no idea why studios don\u2019t use the same codec on both releases like Warner does). Whatever the reason, this is probably inferior but even so, the track does come to life during the action sequences alongside the clear dialogue levels. It\u2019s nothing overly robust nor will it give the surround system a workout, but certainly still serviceable.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 2.75\/5<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n
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Overall, Venom<\/em><\/strong> had the right ingredients from an incredibly talented actor starring, a multi Oscar-nominated actress in the love interest role and an interesting anti-hero in the form of black goo. Unfortunately, the execution wasn\u2019t the best with a weak-ass villain, performed poorly, a haphazard script with questionable character motivations and CGI that looked like it came from the early 2000s. This might\u2019ve played perfectly well pre-Dark Knight<\/em>, but I would expect better as even the more light-hearted Ant-Man<\/em> movies were better than this; further goes to show Sony should pair up with Marvel proper more (see Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/em>). This Blu-ray release offers up good video\/audio transfers and a good selection of bonus material.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

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