Oh, folks, it's show tied. People say good money to see this movie.
When they go out to a theater, they want clothed sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters.
In the protection booth, everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.
Got it off, lam Leave you to the end.
This is your captain speaking.
If you look out to your left, you'll see a beautiful view of the Grand Canyon.
Told flow show like this.
No, I can't absolutely guarantee.
I'm us phoned us who sent that thing.
Of course, Symbias didn't come here by accident.
They were running.
From what what's his name?
Then?
No, we have something ins longest less everything will end.
Maybe we need a disguise.
Why did you keep rocking people out?
As long as you.
Become a long way you would be.
This world can't survive you stay together.
But I needed.
You're bad people were always.
There comes a time in every man's life where.
You have to make a sacrifice. I'm with you to the end.
This is all the money that we have.
You.
You're welcome for.
I welcome to the Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White on this special crossover event. I am joined by the Culture cast Christashue wee on I am also joined by Midnight Viewings Antonio.
Yep, now you doing?
Thanks for having me and Midnight Viewings Father alone.
This movie doesn't represent the Lamb diminishing returns. It represents a of my increasing rage.
Oh my get ready to dive into the chaotic and thrilling world of Venom The Last Dance. In this episode, we unraveled the wild journey of Eddie Brock and his iconic symbiote as they faced their toughest battles yet. From intense confrontations to unexpected alliances, we'll explore the story's dark twists and the shocking fate that awaits. Join us as we dissect the gripping narrative, mind blowing visuals, and unforgettable moments that to find this epic chapter. Fans, this one's
got all the bite. Don't miss it.
Oh Chris, where the fuck did that come from? Did you have AI right that for you?
Chris? What did you think of Venom three aka Venom The Last Dance?
I was disappointed that there wasn't enough Michael Jordan in the movie.
Isn't that not what this is?
Like?
The Last Dance reference there was that Michael Jordan documentary that came out like two years ago. That wasn't Michael Jordan The Last Dance. I know what they're getting at with the title of the movie. I found this to be a very oddly homosexual film in a way that the other Venom movies, at least the second and third one were. The first one not so much, but definitely the second one. The first one was like, Hey, we have to have a love interest, and then the last
two have been like, the love interest is venom. That's the point, y'all.
Doesn't the second one have a whole plot about them breaking up?
Yeah?
And then this one is the death of the relationship, the sacrifice of one for the other. I think I probably enjoyed it more than at least Father Malone, but he let the cat out of the mag early. I don't know about y'all. I thought it was fun. I actually enjoyed these Venom movies a fair amount. I think that Tom Hardy as Venom is a weird choice that works.
I think that there's some cheats in this movie that are cheats, and I think we were now seeing the multi versus cheats, and I'm sick and fucking tired of it, kind of like Venom says in the movie, I'm thinking this multi versus shit. Yeah, me too, dude. Other than that, I thought it was a perfectly fine movie. It is a very weird.
Comic book movie for twenty twenty four.
But I will say, for as much as Marvel's stuff, Marvel's MCU stuff has been very say me, which it has for quite some time now, at least the Sony's stuff, the Sony Spider Man stuff, as bad as most of it has been cough the damn web cough, Morbius, at least they're like entertaining in a very strange way. And
I'm not saying they're good, They're just entertaining. And who the fuck is making a comic book movie like this in twenty twenty four, because these have sensibilities of those early two thousand Spider Man movies or early two thousand superhero movies like those X Men movies and the Spider Man movies and the Fantastic Four movies. Even so, I think it's a weird movie. Again, I don't know what to make of a movie where they have a dance
number with that. Again, well, it's not for everybody. I think in a lot of ways it will be yet another weird entry into Sony's Spider Man, whatever the hell they're doing without Spider Man. But I thought it was fun within reason, and it's only an hour and a half, which is nice compared to every other MCU thing, which quocks in it two hours bare minimum because because why, I don't know.
And Antonio, how about yourself?
I felt like it was an eighties movie. I had that kind of vibe to and I think that's what it was, an eighties buddy movie, either on the road or YadA YadA YadA. Here's a stupid musical number for no reason here running into the lady from the last movie, just randomly playing poker on one of the machines. I just it was terrible. I ain't gonna lie. It's not a great movie. I haven't liked any of them. But if you separate yourself from it being Venom, I guess
it's a pretty entertaining monster comedy. That's how plays. But you know, I was nine, ten or eleven whenever when Venom dropped, right, I remember that first issue that I had with him, and it was I didn't get the first I didn't have that three hundred ish and number three hundred of Spider Man, but I had one or two afterwards that have kidnapped Mary Jane and as the first time I had seen Farlan draw Spider Man, and I was blown away from him, like I had seen
him in other stuff at DC, and he was this was his arch nemesis. He was this evil kind of character. And even when they storm shadowed him in the nineties there, like when it turned him into a good guy out of nowhere, he still had a redemp shit arc. He's okay, So I was this awful guy and I'm trying to do better now movie Venom, it just is. I don't think Spider Man three is all that great, but I do tell for graces ven him and liked his evil Peter Parker he was a jerk. It was a reason
for that hatred towards him, obviously. That just the thing just dropping out of the sky while Peter Parker's writing his book. It's ridiculous, but it looked cool. It looked like body Horror a little bit. And this one saying they aren't very gross, it's very courriage and Eric cg. I don't know what noll is. They just said, Okay,
here's this force from another dimension? Is thats a crossover with Spider Man down and then ad finally you have the delight of having the guy from ted Lasso in that movie and you use it for three minutes.
So yeah, I don't know, there's a lot of ted Lasso in this movie. To be fair, Do you know Temples? Also?
Yeah?
You know Temples?
Yeah, that's what did. They were just like, hey, ted Lasso's popular. We'll just put like half of the main cast from that show in this movie, all right.
Not gonna lie. I did a day of background on it, and I did the scene where they show up in Vegas. I was there, but I'm not in the movie at all. My buddy and Pather Malone's call match. Chef Road is an actor in town. She you see him. He's walked behind in a two shot there, he walks behind Tom Hardy and Recei fens but I like Receives. I thought he was gonna be the lizard. They kick him out. Yes, he wasn't the lizard.
He was just some rando.
Tom Hardy At the point that Chris brought up Tom Hardy is really good though, like he makes the movie entertaining. Venom is a creature, is entertaining. The men might grow up in a comic book with, but Tom Hardy is just like weird. Eddy's fun. Tom Hardy reminds me of Nicholas Cage and that anything that they're gonna be in the performance is gonna be weird enough that you're gonna at least be entertained by it and go for ninety minutes.
That's great too, That's what that eightieth movie thing came from terms of me and Father Malone.
How about you, sir, I'm gonna just start with what I liked about the movie. The xenophage, the creatures that are hunting them when they eat somebody they like arisol the blood out of the back of their head. That was awesome. I like seeing Elena Ubach in anything, even as misguided as their character is here in the movie. And I guess that's about it, Tom Hardy, I'll be yes. And the look of Venom himself, like, I just kept wondering why this movie is called Venom because we don't
really get a lot of him. I kept wondering why it wasn't just Venom most of the time and Tom Hardy popping out every once in a while instead of the reverse. There seems to be less and less of Venom in these movies, rather unusual, and to hear the conceit is that they can't even bond because that attracts the creatures, so they've given themselves this excuse not to fully Venom. I don't know if that's a budget constraint
or whatever. But the thing where they have Venom's head talking to him, I think is great, and I know they started that in the previous one, but their friendship is fantastic. But to Antonio's point, this ain't Venom.
Man.
I owned an action figure of Venom that, when you pushed a button said I want to eat you a breeze. That's Venom. Also, by the way, part of the retro fitting of Venom in the nineteen nineties was Null, the creator of the symbiates and the.
Z that's way more recent than the nineties.
That's like in the last ten years, which is fucking wild that they introduce it here, because so much of what they've done with Venom up until this point has just been nineties stuff. And then they're like, oh, by the way, here is the King of the Symbiotes, which is a thing that literally, I'm not even joking. I one it was a thing that was in the last ten years because they did a big marvel for the
entire universe. They did an entire event and he it was like Planet Venom or something to that effect, and he was the main villain in that. But to your point, all it does is they, oh, now Venom's a good guy in everything.
Venom's a good guy.
There's no villain Venom anymore in anything, even in the comic books now because of this character, and now they're doing it in the movies as well.
But if he started being a villain in the nineties though, that whole lethal Protector something like, all.
The Symbiotes are good guys.
Is my point. It's not just Venom, it's now you're saying, the way they've treated it in the comic book is the way they're treating it in the movie, where all the Symbiotes are seemingly heroes and the villain is this overarching character. So, oh, we just understand that the symbiotes. Everybody loves the Symbiotes. Duh, of course we do. But
that's that oversaturation thing. They just wanted to have Captain America's Venom and Iron Man his Venom, and Hulk is Venom, which happened in the comic book as well.
By the way, Dad Nogay, he just looks like Japanese is video game cut scene to look like a final Fantasy game or something with that hair and chromatic pauses or anything of that. Like, is that supposed to crossover into Tom Hollins MCU universe or whatever.
It's quite clear this entire movie is the setup for a new trilogy of Symbiot movies.
With Juno Temple as the lead.
Absolutely, that's all I was the entire time. I was like, this does not feel like the third film in a trilogy. This feels like the prologue for future adventures of the Symbias in the Sony universe.
Yeah, so what did you think?
Bike?
Apparently I liked this movie a lot more than y'all did.
I seem to enjoy it quite a bit. I'm with you.
I went back and rewatched the first two, which I've seen several times, mostly the first one. I'm not huge on Carnage. My background with Venom is I was there for the Secret Wars the first one and the Black Suit and the Beyonder giving that to them, and all these things, and then Spider Man waking up very tired in the morning, doesn't know what's going on, finding out that Symbio has life, goes to the Baxter building, gets
it removed. Eventually Venom arrives. But I think I was out of comic books by the time even Carnage showed up. So yeah, Venom was still a bad guy when I was reading comics, and Carnage was the bad guy coming out of all that. I really had hoped for more when it came to that witty Harrelson movie, even though that was absolutely ridiculous, especially that they changed his hair between the first movie and the second movie with that amazing Ronald McDonald wig that he was wearing.
That was my biggest disappointment with that second movie. Be like Carnage, I'm just an average guy with a really big dick.
But it's just a hit that. But Mike brings up an interesting point is that he was out of a comics by tin Carnage shut up and stuff like. That's when I was like a high school kid or whatever, and that was a multi media event. There was no movie, but there was a Carnage Maximum Carnage video game, there was a Sega game, and there was a coin op it ended up on. When we ended up on the cartoon,
it was like this big event. It was a huge thing, and I think you just see all of this Vendom stuff and all these Sydians and Spider Man's not there. There's no reference to Spider Man anywhere, and it just, I don't know, it just takes away from it's hard for me to I know, for without Spider Man.
That was a really weird thing to have that extra scene at the end of Venom two where Eddie suddenly goes into the main MCU universe timeline and sees j Jonah Jamison sees Tom Holland as Spider Man on the TV, and it just it doesn't make sense unless Eddie Brock is the same Eddie Brock as Toe for Grace. It doesn't make sense for him to have been transported to that universe because it's only for people who know the identity of Spider Man, so him showing up really doesn't
make sense. Same thing with Electro to be a nitpicker, it really should have been Vulture showing up in that universe.
But remember when Vulture showed up at the end of More Vius. Yes, I should make any sense, and that was Vulture from the MCU. Yeah, once again, and.
He doesn't even know what the hell he's doing there. But yeah, this whole thing and that I love how they just undo it within the first five minutes of Venom three. Okay, and yeah, to see who is it Sammy? No, I can't remember the name of the angel the football is Life guy A. Yes, that was so great to see him show up, and I was super excited. Yeah, but that was funny. And yet they set up so many challenges for themselves as far as we can't go back to San Francisco, we can't go to New York.
I kept thinking that they were going to finally end up in New York. And yeah, this whole thing of we can't be Venom because these creatures will know that we're around, but we do become Venom just in order to kick the plot into gear. But I don't know, I still like it. It's dumb as donkey dick, as
the kids say, but I really like these movies. And I even liked the Reesa fans part even though Yeah, to your point, Antonio, I thought that he was maybe gonna turn into lizard and then having chew ATel Edgya for him here too, like, oh, is he a secret wizard here?
It's weird how many people who have been in other MCU things are in this movie. However, I will say at this point it's a very short list of people that haven't been in the MCU.
Thirty MCU movies, Like everyone's fucking been in them by now, so of course they're gonna start crossing over. And that's my point with chaiwtel eisenfor he's playing Rex Strickland, who is like a major character now or at least for a while with he has bonded with a symbiote and is like an ass kicker, and they just spoilers everybody. They just fucking waste him. At the end of this movie, I was like, why did they even call him Strickland?
Yeah, yeah, that was odd because even for me not being part of the comics culture for the last few years, I still knew the name. I was like, oh, major Strickland, Okay, I know that guy.
I guess I can I quit The actor crossover till reading John Byrne comics in the eighties when I was a kid, where you know, he just drew Superman and mister Fantastic for everybody. Maybe that's just it. Oh well, they just look alike.
But also again, like literally at this point, to your point, father Malone, there's so many MCU movies, it's almost impossible to not have. But the problem is obviously now because they've opened up the multiverse box. If Recipens is in the movie, he must be a lizard or what you know what y'ell edgeer for, like he's fucking Mordoe. No, they're just new characters altogether. Because initially Recipens was going to play Clint Clint Clint Eastwood killed he was, and
that was the initial rumor. But then it turns out it's just Andy serkis once again doing the voice.
Of the character.
No, the name of the planet is killed.
Yeah, no, so so it's so it's just Andy serkis once again doing the voice of a of a CGI character, just like he did in Star Wars.
It's the new Panos. Everybody, Wait, once he gets out, things are going to be really bad in that Sony universe.
Who could have been really bad? Is the god killer from or Love and Thunder talk about a wasted character.
Just Clint is his own planet.
Yeah, he really reminds me of those two characters remind me of each other. Maybe it was the black and whiteness of it all or something, but I was like, Okay, yeah, another one of these dudes, and yeah, no resolution with him. And I was like, oh, yeah, I don't even know if we're going to make more of these Sony films or if now everything we'll find the revert over to
Disney again. The last Deadpool that we watched was just that big love letter to Fox's attempts with the memories that Eddie has at the end of this film of him and Venom together. I was like, Okay, is this our last hurrah for this character before they go over to the Disney side of it?
Hopefully he.
I think a lot of that responsibility falls on Sony were joining capitalize a regular Marvilla universe with their crappy version and other attempts they've done, like Bloodshot or whatever it is we mean that has a lot to do. I think it is Marvel's product up until recently has been pretty consistently. Actually, I want Marvel's product now is about the same it was ten years ago. It's just these are new characters, so there's a bit more scrutiny
out of it. And the funny thing is with the new stuff, I didn't like the stuff that most people don't. I thought Sheield was great, I thought Miss Marvel was great. That I don't like Loki kind of at the end of the day, it's all of the taste. But I think so many just with their crappy product.
You know, unt and Coney, you said this movie reminded you of a movie from the eighties. This reminded me specifically of a canon attempt at making a superhero movie like circa nineteen eighties, having the script, particularly just a random honchponge and let's throw this in, and oh, let's have a dance sequence here, and oh, you know, let's have this scene where Eddie makes a margarita with flipping bottles and Tequila is playing, well, speed it up action like Benny Ill style.
I did.
This movie was confusing.
Yeah, it was a hodgepot. It was like they got the rights to the character but didn't quite read all the stuff, and they just picked and chose what they thought it was gonna be. Like, I had a real Revenge of swamp thing via to it, but just swamp thing is damn good though.
But no, you know, it reminds me of that Dolf Lundgren punisher. Okay, he has a Shakespearean friend and he lives in a sewer. Why, I don't know.
Why not?
Did you read the comics?
Now?
Who cares?
Yeah? With that opening seat of that Dolph Lander Punisher is just fantastic where he chills all those mobsters in that house. Well, that's great. And that fight at the end against the ECUs I was pretty good too. Man, I'm not gonna lie, but they never get the punisher right anyways, Loos, So what are you gonna do?
Well, that's the question that I have speaking of that. So you're you're both talking about the fact that this is not venom the way that venom is in the comic books. This is gonna this is just me coming at this. That doesn't bother me anymore because I don't really care because it's the movie and the comic book exists.
The shitty movie.
However, again, that's a more subjective thing. I'm more talking to the idea of if this were the MCU and that were the criticism, I would get it because I hold the MCU to a different standard, because the MCU is trying to be the film definitive version of the characters, the same way the comic book base universe in the comic book is trying to be the through line character of Iron Man as he is and has been since
he was introduced. Because there is still the original universe of the characters, ultimate universe and everything else aside, it doesn't bother me so much anymore. I understand. I get it. But at the same time, if this were the MCU version of Venom and he were this weird ass character, I would agree. I think if the MCU ever does it, which I assume and hope that they do, because this movie makes it pretty clear that this is not going
to be the Venom of the MCU. Thankfully, this is black stuff on the bar and the other that's in this universe.
It gets left.
We left a bit of himself in the last one.
But they didn't, but they didn't show it in this movie.
Probably do but the Spider Man movie.
But I'm wondering if they like I think they might have rent conned that out of the movie.
There.
Well, no, I agree, But my point being like I think if there is going to be a Venom in the MCU, they will probably do something more akin to the original run of the character. And I don't think they've done it yet. I think that they will do it at some point. And for me, like I said, I understand the criticisms though this isn't Venom the way I wanted it to be, But for me, it's this is more just Tom Hardy being fucking Tom Hardy and being weird.
It's again, the.
Problem with this movie really is that the name of the movie is Venom.
That's the real problem.
Here's the thing. I've been very vocal that I love every version cinematic version of a character, just like I love every version of a comic book. Different artists, different writers take the characters in different directions. I have no truck with them not adhering to the comic book. In fact, I think Marvel the cinematic Marvel works so well because they don't adhere to the character. They very quickly change
anything for their characters. So long as Bucky's like a twelve year old boy in the comic books, So I think that's what works mainly with that.
You know why I think the Marvel universe works so well is because, Oh, Kevin the Maaster. I don't know if you guys have watched that show, the Franchise on HBO, but what's behind the scenes backstage of a superhero franchise movie event and the Kevin Viggy figures always living up somewhere from his assistant. But the cool thing about Kevin Vaggy is Kevin Vage likes these characters. Ken Puggy likes the comic books, he likes the like he likes it.
And I think the more successful Marvel movies usually work with people behind them. Then when they like the characters, I think, and you can see that people making these Venom movies, it feels like they just don't like them very much.
I'm just gonna do whatever with it.
That's the vibe I get. But you watch an MCU movie, you can tell that at the top there's a real love for what Jack Kirby and Steve Viddo and stan Lee created.
I wouldn't be surprised since we are headed towards a secret worst movie. I wouldn't be surprised. If they pulled out Venom, then that seems like it'd be a good time to also pay a little homage to the original, as long as they change out beyond her and that incredible white man perm.
That he had going on.
I mean, there is a fourth Spider Man MCU movie coming. They just announced it recently. Who knows if it will be It could be Venom again. They haven't said anything other than there will be a fourth Spider Man movie, which would lead me to believe they'll probably be a fifth and a sixth Spider Man movie.
Ok.
Take a second. The Tom Holland is so good as Spider Man. Yeah, Like he is like that when I was a kid. That that's who was in my head floating around is what Tom Holland is doing. Man, Like he's the spectacular. I'm excited to see him to be college Spider Man now having all these girl Bertha this stuff.
But we'll finally get a chance maybe to me Felicia Hardy and some of these other love interests that he us.
I was like, Oh, I'm so down on my luck, but look at my parade of really hot.
Yeah exactly, I'm not gonna like what.
Yeah, you pulled Stacy and Mary Jane. How the hell did you do that? What can't procuct?
Oh my god?
Yeah, And that's what I'm saying. I wonder have they had a Norman Osbourne. They haven't had Norman Osbourne.
Harry and Norman are gonna be on the Freshman Year cartoon.
Harry, he was in the third movie. He showed up because I was yet another villain in the New Goblin. And then we had that awful the kid from the Chronicle that looked.
Like he was Dan.
Yeah, they're black on the cartoon. I think, Oh interesting, Harry. Yeah, I'm writing an angry tweet about that right now. I can't stand African American people.
They willam was Norman when he's I don't exist? When did that universe? That's what else?
What?
They haven't introduced those characters yet. And in the Spider Man video game they actually take an interesting route and they actually have Harry Osbourne is venom in the video game.
In everybody in the comics at this point.
Oh yeah, he's been flashed Thompson And yeah, right now in the comic book, Eddie Brock is Carnage.
I believe he's courage that Venom.
Yeah, because he has Eddie Brock hasn't been Venom for quite some time.
Ever.
Yeah, well, I'm thinking Nettle the venom Ned's going to be Venom or Hobgoblin or something like that at some point.
Oh, I actually assume Need's gonna be Hobgoblin.
That would be interesting. Eddie Brock is an interesting character in these movies, and that he's not that bright, going back to even the second Venom movie, when Venom is basically teaching him how to be a reporter and gives them all the clues about where these bodies are buried. He looks at all these obscure drawings that whaty Harrelson is doing, Kletus is doing and brings us back and draws them all out. And I kind of like that Eddie is he's pretty much a fuck up when it's
basically both of them. In the first movie, Venom talks about how he's a loser on his own planet, and I like it's these two losers together and having these delusions Brander, these delusions of what's their team up name Lethal and Leith Protector. Yeah, just I think that's great that they are these schlubs and really everything that can go wrong does go wrong for them. I that quite a bit, and I didn't mind the whole idea of bringing all the symbiotes together and having that big fight
at the end. I can see where some people would say that was a ridiculous fight, but I thought it was great. I really like to see all the venoms, all the symbiotes going at it. I thought that was pretty cool, and I was. It was like a little bit like, oh, I've seen a two headed symbiote before, I've seen this, the one that you know Temple plays. I think I've seen Guy or Yeah. I'm just like, oh, these are cool character designed, So that was nice to see them.
And they're pretty true to the comics too.
They're very.
Straight up pretty much, I would say upconverted versions. They don't do much with them, which is nice if they made some broad, sweeping changes and tried to do that fan forestick version where it's gonna be more body horror and realistically, I think I might have been checked out from a movie like this because this movie feels cartoony.
It feels like a live action cartoon in a lot of ways, almost almost to the point where I wish it had been more, but I feel like then it would just be like the straight comedy and people would probably have checked out even more. But I would almost go as far as to say the tone of these movies is like a comedic superhero movie. They're like like straight up comedies almost right.
This whole movie is about shoes from the very beginning of the film. He's got the shoes, he loses those, he gets these other shoes, he loses those. Even when he's being pulled out of that Vegas pen house, he
goes my shoes. And then even when we see and I can't remember the actress's name, but she's Genotemple's assistant, Christmas Tree, Like the first thing we see her do is coming to her office, take off her shoes, put these shoes on the shelf, and there's such a prominent close up of the shoes, and I think that's supposed to tip us off later when she's wearing these ugly black crocs coming down into the laboratory and those are venom and so I'm like, five minutes before that, I
leaned over to my wife and I was just like, this whole movie's obsessed with shoes. And then that her shoes were venom. Yeah, that's just proves my point.
And Eddie took those shoes at the end.
Yeah, it's very Quentin Tarantino of the.
Movie, obsessed with shoes, not with feet.
We get a whole lot of different variations of Venom here. We get the venom horse and a venom frog and a venom fish, and none of them do anything, and they all just hint that could have been an entirely different movie with Venom doing horrible things. During the end credits they have even further variations. At one point they show a venom elephant and I thought, where was the venom elephant rampaging through a fucking city? Like, why were
we at decommissioned Area fifty one? This fucking nonsense with this, It's Chekhov's giant acid bath machine. If you introduce it in the opening, you have to use it in the end, and they sure do.
Jesus, I don't even know why he was assetting, whether he was assetting at the beginning.
I was like, what is the the truck?
Okay, sure, I don't know why, but okay, and.
If that's the method that they were using to destroy things, then Why was it taking as long as it was? It seems like that was one day's work and no more. Area fifty one when you're using the acid bath.
I feel like a lot of stuff that happened in this movie or a result of studio notes, Well, what's your missus Lee or what is that her name?
No, missus Yeah, I think it is missus Lee.
Yeah, its sorry. I feel like this movie needs something fun and they just say okay, Jesus a vagus.
I actually think that it's Tom Hardy's contribution to the script myself.
Well, yes, he has story by credits.
And a screenplay by a person who could not make a decent screenplay out of Twilight fan fiction because she wrote that fifty Shades of Gray at that taste?
Have you read the starting material?
Anyone?
You can only go up is my point.
Hunt.
You can only polish a turd so much.
Yeah, boy, yeah, that bottom alone. I think you're really giving fifty Shades of Gray way more credit, because if you've read it, I don't think there's any up you can go from.
Reverse.
Speaking of things that are strange, why are the characters from Paul in this movie? Is that's what the Reese Ethan's character reminds me of Oh okay, because oh, we're going to go to Area fifty one to look for aliens.
Like where is this coming from?
For episode one, two, and three of of this prologue that we just watched.
It's very strange. But how do they factor into any of this?
I'm sure they already have it sorted out, but no.
I'm genuinely asking in what does any of their characters matter at all?
Reese Ephon's is going to end up being a symbiote host and a bad one, and I don't know it writes itself, I guess.
So it's just so odd to me that there's this all of a sudden, there's this like family of the Tobias Funke family banned all of a sudden, it's just traveling the country because Area fifty one is being decommissioned. It's like I expected Seth Green from the X Files to be with them. Whoa man, I want to go see the lights a gain a studio now.
The summer of nineteen eighty eight, Cannon Films presents Venom.
Remember the Weed and Justice League had a very similar thing with that Russian family at the end that the flash has to say.
Oh yeah, yeah, weed and threw that in there just because the notes from the previous movie were like stop killing everybody.
It reminded me more of like a family that was in Mars attacks or Independence Day, so from early Yeah. I don't know if this is necessarily a movie that's stuck in the eighties. I would say probably more like ninety five, ninety four or something around there.
I've been saying it for ten damn years.
They probed him sexually.
Yeah, there's a little bit of Randy Quaid going on here. It doesn't seem the movie knows what it wants to do in a lot of ways. It almost feels like vignettes. And again like such a weird to me, Antonio and Father Malone y'all talking about this doesn't feel like Venom.
I agree.
It feels like someone was like, all right, the last two movies, we've established this like weirdo version of venom. What would be interesting for him to do. Let's make a list of those things, and how can we cobble together a script that gets you from that point to that point? Because we haven't right on a horse. I have him fighting underwater where they're jumping around to the fish and the frogs, and then we have the symbio
fight at the end of the movie. But I am more with you, Mike, like I enjoyed it because it's just I don't know, and Mike, this might rankle you a little bit.
I go back to the joker fully ado of it all.
I'm more content to watch weird failures of movies at this point than Deadpool Wolverine, which I was like, I will probably never watch again because I've seen so many clips of it on YouTube and everything else now of just everything from that movie over and over again that
I'm sick and tired of hearing about it. And I would rather just watch a failure of a movie that is at least fucking bizarre and is bizarre and knows it's bizarre than one of these highly polished MCU movies that again, Deadpool Wolverine was all about the cameos, like that's ended up what it was being about, Like the plot of that movie was threadbare. This movie's trying to get to a big symbioe fight at the end of the movie. That's what this movie's trying to get to.
And dead Pool Wolverine is trying to get to a scene where there's a bunch of characters walking on screen that you've never seen before or have seen before, and now they're in the MCU. I'm I would rather watch a movie that just fails spectacularly that a movie that feels like, oh, it's this highly polished product that is fine. But at the end of the day, I go back to this problem that I've had.
With Star Wars and other Marvel stuff.
You guys have how much money?
Yeah?
Can I just got Chris. I'm sorry to jump in, but this movie costs one hundred and twenty fucking million dollars. So it's actually wildly offensive to me because all of the weird choices they're making all feel like they're fucking marketing choices. It all feels like safe things, like audiences like this will do this, and this is weird, and this is offbeat.
It all does anymore, right, it all does.
Even dead Pool Wolverine all feels like safe choices, is my point, Like all of its safe choices now, which is a fucking shame.
I think Deadpool Wolverine was making better choices than this movie was making more outlandist choices that movie starts with the lead character using the other character's spine and skull to decimate and bludgeon and kill a bunch of characters. This movie would never do that, And that's the high point to that movie. You know what, there's a plot going on in that movie. And I liked Wolverine. That was finally good use of the multiverse where we took
a Wolverine. It was total fucking failure and at least gave him a bit of redemption by the end. Like I liked that arc, particularly after the downer of Logan.
I just for is a really entertaining piece of it, Like a really nice one shot, forty eight page comic that I would get when I was a kid. Is here's this team up and it's gonna be a lot of fun, and you're gonna have a really good time. But you're gonna really remember Wolverine's costume with.
The end, probably not for the right reasons. Well, he's got the the the.
It's a full comic book accurate Wolverine costume does any Yeah, that's about it. That's I think the most memorable thing that he's got. I still think it was fun, but it's not.
I think this movie is as fun as that one. Me personally, I don't know, Mike. I think you and I are more on the same page with Venom. Did you enjoy this as much as you enjoyed dead Pool Wolverine?
I think I enjoyed dead Pool Wolverine more. But to your point, I think I would rewatch this one sooner than I would Wolverine, just because once I learned who the cameos were and saw all of those come to life, It's okay. There are some good moments to it, but not nearly for me as many good moments as this one. I do like the riding of the forest, of course, reminds me of the riding of the motorcycle from the
first one. I like the symbiote fight. I even liked the fight on top of the airplane, which was ridiculous. It is interesting when I was done watching this movie, the overly loud, drunk asshole behind me goose there's probably five hours worth of this movie on the cutting room floor. We barely saw any of this, and I'm like, what
are you talking about. There's nothing that was left on the cutting room floor with us other than maybe they made it change because in the trailer, I seem to remember like debris coming down from space, and I guess it's those would you guys call them xenophages? Yeah, so I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, but they showed that, and they show somebody at a telescope looking and I'm like, oh, okay, that's how they get to Earth. Or maybe this is more symbiotes. I honestly thought it was more symbiotes when
I saw the trailer. But okay, there's nothing left on the cutting room floor, Dude, tell me what you think wasn't resolved by this, because other than a little bit more oh there's black goo remaining at the end, there's nothing here that suggests there's a longer movie. For me, I don't know.
About you guys.
Maybe some of that comes from the character of Nol just feeling if there is an issue that I really have with this movie, for me, it is that character of no being introduced, and it's like that feels like the Roman Bridger ret con of this movie, where it's like there's been this whole thing this whole time, and it's Scream three makes the joke about the ret con and going back and ret conning the first two movies, and that is what this movie does with the null character.
There is a bigger threat and the symbiotes aren't the bad guys like way to pull a lot of what made the first two movies interesting was that the symbiotes didn't necessarily align on the side of these are like broadly good characters had carnage, you had.
Whoever the Indian guy was.
Yeah, first one toxin and the last one who Also, that's my other issue with this movie. What a weird usage of that character given what his given what he is in the comic books, which is talk about a usage of a character that is far from what the character in the comic book is who is and in the comic book is essentially just he's venom, who's good. From the start, it's essentially it's the same setup of he's a cop, but he's a cop who gets a symbiote.
Detective Mulligan here, Oh okay, thank you for somebody finally fucking explaining what Chris is talking about.
I didn't understand what you were asking, Mike, my bad, My bad, because I realized that they never say the name of the character in the movie.
Don't know.
That's the issue.
And so same with the Agony, the character that Juno Temple ends up, the symbiode that she ends up playing. They never say the character's name in the movie. That's purely from the comic books, that's purely from the separation anxiety storyline.
The annoying thing about adding Null to this is that that it seems like every character, every conversation is about Null. It's about Symbiote explaining this horrible threat that we never get to fucking deal with that.
Just showed up in this movie. They've known about this whole time.
They even mentioned multiple times he's older than the universe itself, and they haven't mentioned him up unto this point.
That's fucking lazy. That's a hell of a retcon.
And like I said, that, for me is the biggest failure of this movie is that the movie isn't just the end of the venom Eddie Brock storyline. This movie, for me, the biggest failure is that it sets up more movies. Not that I don't want them, but to your point, Father Malone, and to everyone's point, it doesn't feel like a movie that's self contained. That for me is the biggest failure of the movie is that it
should have just been the Venom story. And to your point before Father Malone about Deadpool making broader choices, I actually disagree. I think Deadpool Wolverine would have been a better movie if Wolverine hadn't been in it, because it would have been a weirder movie, because it would have been a Deadpool movie that would have been great in and of itself. But if it had just been a Deadpool three, I think it would have been a more interesting movie. And they had to undercut a lot of
it for the Wolverine of it all. And I think similarly in this movie, it should have just been a Venom movie with some sort of threat that had been somewhat pre established. They established it at the end of the last movie. Why wasn't it just the Danny Rojas character as the final villain or something to that effect. Instead, they had to go and rope Andy Circus into this.
That for me is the biggest failure. And to your point, it's like, like Antonio said, it's a cutaway to something else, like all of a sudden, CGI bullshit, and then we're back to again. There is CGI bullshit with the Venom character. But all of that with Null is taking place where Vecna is in Stranger Things. It's like this fucking other thing that's all CGI and you have a person standing on a green screen going pretend like you're scared or
sit in a chair. And I think it hurts the plot of the movie because it should have just been the culmination of the Eddie Venom story and introducing this new threat that will continue on past this movie is like, why even have Venom die if he's just clearly gonna come back? I'm what is this the Walking Dead all of a sudden?
But I like the point you made about Deadpool Wolverine though, because instead of getting Deadpool invading the Marvel Universe, invading the MCU and barreling his way through Iron Man movies and Captain America movies and it Halt movies and just being a nuisance to all the established characters, now we're just barreling through all these variations of Wolverine. Yeah, you make a very valid point. I can't really disagree with you there.
It's unfortunate. Like I'm not saying dead Poo Wolverine's a bad movie. It's a good movie for what they made, but it being Deadpool three, they undercut the movie by it being a Wolverine movie.
And same with this movie.
I was shocked when that ended up being a thing they revealed in one of the late trailers for this movie, cause I was like, holy shit, Like, why are they doing this in this movie? This is such a big deal in the comic books. It's like doing Red Skull in the first Captain America movie.
What were you thinking?
Like now, it's like, why are you doing this in the third movie when ostensibly it's supposed to be the end of the trilogy. Unless you're signaling, which they are, there will be more of these movies.
I've gotten to the point now where I don't trust the mid credits and end credits sequences just because so many of them have been ignored over the years. Like not to say that I'm waiting for Harry Styles to enter the MCU or any of these other bullshit end scenes that they've had over the years.
By Brett Gold speaking of Ted Lasso and Brett Gold.
But yeah, I agree, that was just really poorly done. And you mentioned his face. I didn't see his face maybe yeah the very end, yes, But otherwise I'm looking at the guy's hairline, and I was just like, what is this guy's problem? Says he emit sound from the center of his forehead. How does this work? But yeah, I agree that was not a wise choice to have that as the big bad. Have somebody else trying to hunt ven or something. Maybe even the guy from the
first movie comes back and does something. And to your point about Deadpool and Wolverine, at least Vanessa shows up for a few minutes. They don't Fridger like they did in the second film. But my god, it was always so amazing to see the caliber of actors in these Venom films, and this one is no exception. I love all the actors that we've mentioned so far, but even in the previous films, having Michelle Williams as Eddie's girlfriend, it's.
Like, what are you doing here?
Why? How are you doing that?
You're like Oscar caliber actress.
Yes, you're sheap at him at one point too.
I agree with you guys as far as the end of a trilogy, This is a terrible way to end a trilogy. If you want to end a series of films and set up a bunch of other stuff. Marvel already did that with Captain America's Civil War, because that completes his story with Bucky, which is the sort of thrust of that entire series. And it's a completely self contained story. And at the end of it, the Shield is fucking smash to pieces, and there's places to go.
There's a million threads that can be drawn from it.
I wonder though, And here's something that maybe we should ask ourselves in twenty twenty four. Do trilogy rules apply anymore? Is that a thing? If we're gonna make three movies, does that necessarily mean we don't make a fourth at this day and age, That's what I'm asking twenty thirty years ago. Yeah, Indiana Jones three, that's it. We got three movies, a trilogy of films. Alien had a quadrilogy.
But my point being, like, I'm wondering if this is just the way that we think about movies needs to somewhat shift based on the MCU because of the way the MCU has been doing storytelling, because everything is interconnected, there isn't at least with the best of the MCU stuff. And look, I'm going to have a hot take here, and I don't really care if people disagree. I think the MCU should have ended at Endgame because a lot of the stuff since has been you said, diminishing returns, Father Malone.
No diminishing returns is this movie, buddy, and not the MCU.
But when we have things like the Eternals or.
Yeah, Quantum MAINEA I know, but I think Quantumnia is interesting for how weird it is. But I think for the MCU, they haven't really made a case for me why they didn't. Let me put it this way, it's not a hot take, I get it. For me, they haven't made a case as to why they continued past endgame because the multiverse stuff has been so muddled and directionless, and because of the Jonathan Majors of it all, unfortunately,
they've had to really hardcore pivot on everything. And now we're seeing like, oh, Robert Towny Junior is Doctor Doom and all that, and that's fine. But for me, the MCU after Endgame has done very little to justify, like why they didn't just stop and reset again. I know they wouldn't because again, that's not something you do in movies as much as comic books.
Saturday Our Lives should have ended in nineteen eighty Michael's Little Original cast of Saturday Note Dead. Oh lord, what do you want me to say?
Man?
Like? Oh, I get it.
They've had thirty movies and the last seven have been bad.
That's almost a third. That's a lot, and they're.
Bad movies are fucking twenty times better than this movie.
I don't know if I agree with that one.
Okay, fine, put any of the Marvel movies against any of the Sony movies since they've been doing their bullshit, like.
The worst MCU. What's the worst MCU movie by your approximation?
Fucking Love and Thunder movie.
Okay, So first off, I'd like to point out that is a post endgame movie.
Yeah, okay, right, right, right, right?
But I think what would you use? Okay, So let me ask a different question. What's the worst MCU movie per your approximation?
Pre endgame Dark World?
This movie is worse than Thor Dark World.
This movie is worse than Thor Dark World. Yes, Thord Dark World is fucking committed to its story. It might be clumsy, it might be a little bit long winded and a little bit muddled in its direction at times, but I never felt like, what the fuck is going on here? Why is Andy Brock standing behind the bar fucking making a tequila with fucking tentacles right now? Well, what's his name? Just stands are going with?
Good?
Are you kidding?
That's because again I think it goes back to the idea that I'm convinced this entire movie is just what would be funny to see Venom do? That's all this, Like I said, it feels like a very vignette sitcom movie.
And I feel about it like I feel like Escape from La where they were like, wouldn't it be funny if we degrade Snake Bliskin in this way? Let's tie him to a treadmill? Won't that be hilarious?
No, And again I understand and completely agree with you feeling that way. Again, I think that Mike and I clearly are enjoying that a little bit more. But I can understand because this movie's not necessarily making itself easy to like, because it is all over the place.
It really is.
I mean, you have a Venom movie where people are being chewed up and fit out, but at the same time we have Venom joking and laughing but then biting people's heads off. Like I don't think these movies have ever really known what they want to be. But I also think that some of that is just the Tom Hardy of it all, because to everyone's point, he's such a specific actor whose presence is so his own thing. I just almost chalk this up to this is just
a Tom Hardy movie too. Ultimately, would these movies be this way if Tom Hardy wasn't Venom, No, I don't think they would. They might be a little bit closer to the way the character was in the comic books, because even Morbius is closer to the comic book version of Morbius than Venom is to the Venom in the comic books. Even Madam we Have in a lot of ways is closer than Venom ever gets in the movies
to the comic book version. The movies really only work when Venom's on street because the character has the floating head or is the creature fully realized and is funny. It's not my venom id as the way to put what I grew up in the comic but the character on screen really works.
I almost wish these weren't related to the Spider Man comics that grew up with. Yeah, and I could probably enjoy it more.
You know what, This almost feels like these could have and should have been an adaptation of the Darkness comic book, because that is almost the way that these characters, the Venom character is treated, because in those comic books, it's like the Crow, this mobster dies and then he's brought back to life by this kind of spirit that bonds himself to him. And then he comes back to life and he wanders New York getting revenge on the people
that killed him and his girlfriend. But he has this tenderly spirit that comes out of him that eats people's hands and he can use it to slash their throats and stuff. There were two fantastic Xbox three sixty games that you could play that had the Darkness.
I believe the lead singer of Faith No More actually voiced.
Game that game. Yeah, I was a fundy hit A little guy is what we would shoot out.
Now, that's what this reminds me more of than anything else, and again that's not Venom. But at the same time, like, if you want to do this, there is already somewhat of a precedent in another comic book for having this, because that's what the externalized head talking to him reminded me of because in that comic book, the tendrils come out of him and they talk to him, and they have that same thing here. And it's weird because it's such a specific thing from something else that is ripping
off Venom. It's very much just another Venom Sue character. I believe that's I don't know what imprint that is. It's on DC or Marvel, it might be dark Horse even, but that's actually more what this reminds me of.
This entire series of movies feels like they when they started, they were like, what do fans want from Venom? They want him chomping people's heads off, and then the rest of the movie is crafted to allow that to happen, so it becomes a wacky comedy. Like the scene where he chomps four guys heads off in this movie is precipitated by him and Venom like trying to say we are Venom in Unison, which.
They did in the first movie with no problem. So funny way they did that in the first movie. Yesterday, when I was rewatching, I was like, why did they forget how to do that over the time, because it's not that much time has passed the first movie, according to this universe the trailer.
Maybe that's right.
So I've got two questions. One is, having not been to Vegas in several years, and hopefully I will see you in a couple weeks here father alone when I head out there. But do they do fireworks displays and fireworks just showing up out of nowhere?
Like all the time on weekends there are fireworks?
Okay, all right, I was very curious about that.
You know what, this movie's the first movie took place in twenty eighteen, I think is that when it came out, they say that two years have passed, right, There was no sphere in Las Vegas in twenty twenty, so they.
Should have painted that out then probably. And there's a big it looks like a ferris wheel there too, that was here. Okay, I never haven't been out there since I think twenty eleven. But anyway, the other thing is, do you think that the guy who's sitting next to Tom Hardy when he's pulling the slot machine handle, do you think he's supposed to look like Martin scorsays he had a real quick glance because every single time I
saw him in the trailer. I was just like, is that supposed to be Martin Scorsesey.
I don't know that he was Martin scarsees in. So he reminded me of the guy in Casino, the one that Ginger tries to scam. Who is a guy I used to see in casinos all the time, and if you said anything to him, you said hi, he would always say thank you, so thank you.
Yeah, I think confirm this because I had a similar experience with that guy. He worked in the Aura, I believe in like a fancy then suit store by Jeremy Piven.
You guys remember Jeremy Piven's heavily gay coded character from.
Rush Over two.
Yes, that's a deep cut, but yeah, that dude's a Vegas local. I guess he was a local actor. That's his claim to fame.
I don't know what to deal with that character in the Casino is, but yeah, what a odd choice to have just like this guy. They might as well have had like an Elvis impersonator sitting at a slot machine next to him.
They should have. And by the way, that's another thing that the bunks me and movies where characters can move faster than normal human speed and they're operating machines. The machines can't. Like they did this when they introduced Quicksilver in Days of Future Pass, Like at one point he's playing pong and he's playing pong at like lightning speed,
but the machine wouldn't be going at lightning speed. Like the same with the slot machine, like bang on it all you want, that's just gonna fucking tilt the thing and have security throw you out.
So the day that I did background noted, I think, or a couple of days they did on it. The dress was pretty flashy Beard Vegas, but they had a specific call for like drag queens, Elvis guys, jugglers, anything that really stands out. Nuns and if you're watching the movie you can see them in the background peppered in there. But they had very specific calls for very generic Las Vegas style folks.
For it, jugglers, but not crusty jugglers.
Crusty jug rusty jugglers, rusty chugglers.
The greater good, great good. That's all I can think of when I think of it.
You're a very unexcited eating part of the there's like in a parking like he turned into a parking at the Paris. It wasn't super exciting where they were, so make it entertaining. The craft service was very good though, had a nice.
Yes.
I saw somebody losing their ship online and I'm so glad somebody screen grabbed this. They were very mad about the poster because the posters woke because it says till death do they part.
They couldn't believe Fosters.
Yep, it can't approve of Venom's pronoun usage.
No, no, but there's two of.
It.
Woke too. He is legion, yes, yes, so m h it's two face woke.
I guess that he's done.
Oh yeah, God canceled. I'm just asking questions. Why didn't they have to change two face? That's the real question that they're asking. Tucker Carlson ask that while he's asking about.
The brown eminem no longer wearing high heels.
It's the green eminem.
I'm just asking questions. God, the Wokesters have taken over Venom.
It's the death of Venom, like they said with the death of Star Wars. Oh, my kind lord, that's a whole thing, man, the whole thing. I just remember nerds with just about who could beat who?
And then that was it simpler simpler times? Eh?
Yeah, yeah, I guess the light saber, specially Captain America's shield it goes.
Through a wall.
I don't know. Of course Naomi Campbell could play for, but she can't act and stuff like that. But now it's just a crazy I would seeing Nomi Cambill play for too.
Until we come back and talk about another new movie, which I don't think we have any picked out yet, and there's nothing really that's exciting me about the rest of the year. We'll have to decide that off air. But until we come back and do that, I want to thank this week's guests and co hosts here. So Antonio, when you're not doing this, what are you doing?
I am an indie movie director. My movie Space Detective came out a few years ago. It's a weird psychedelic live action animation hybrid is a trip and I have a few shorts at now when you show it at Living bed as playing film festivals and the forty eight Hour.
Film Festival next weekend.
But you can check us out at Swampmediagroup dot Element at swap Media Group on Instagram.
How about you father them alone check me in at Weirdingwaymedia dot Com, my podcast midnight viewing twice a week. We do horror anthologies, we do regular anthologies, we do bonus episodes, we do a whole lot to go. Check that out. Oh, and check out I'm a co host with HP's show Night Mister Walter is the Taxi Podcast. Check that one out as well.
And Chris, how about yourself.
I'm just keeping up with all the other audio things that I do over Weirdingwaymedia dot com, where this show and all the other things I work on can be found. Been doing the Culture Cast.
For a decade. Now, yep, that's a long time.
What about you?
Wait?
As for me, everything that I do is available at Weirdingwaymedia dot com. So if you want to hear me shooting off my mouth over there, please do other than the one show that Chris and I do that is only available via our patreons, which is the ranking on Bond podcast. And we recently had Father Malone in there to talk about live and let Down.
Yeah.
I was like, that's the wrong song, mad to your.
Job to do?
Yeah, godda do it well?
Yeah, Paul McCarthy reggae, you got to give the other folks head.
On over to Wadingwait meday dot com. We can hear all kinds of crazy stuff. Thank you so much for listening to us, and we'll catch on the flip side.
Oh,