New ‘Venom’ TV Spot Teases Beginning of a Terrible Friendship

The latest Venom TV spot highlights the nightmarish anit-hero’s power set, while also teasing the dual-minded nature of its protagonist, Eddie Brock / Venom – both roles being played by star Tom Hardy. Watch the new footage above, and we’ll break it down, below!

The line that will certainly stick out in this latest TV spot is no doubt the Venom symbiote telling Eddie that this their origin story is “the beginning of a terrible friendship.” It’s another off-beat line of dialogue from the script by Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinker, Kelly Marcel and Will Beall, which has already been gaining notice – and not always for the best reasons. Even though this Venom movie pulls some iconic lines from the comics (that “turd in the wind” quote), they still seem somewhat awkward and clunky in delivery. The same goes for this “terrible friendship” line; it may work in the comics, but in a live-action movie it’s questionable if it works as effectively.

At the time of writing this, Venom is gearing up for its opening weekend premiere. While the early opening box office projections and advanced ticket sales seem strong, the real test will be when the first official Venom social media reactions and review scores start being released online in the twenty-four hours. If the early critical reviews and word-of-mouth aren’t that strong, it wouldn’t be a good look, but it may not be all that much of a factor in deterring the film’s performance. The movie is currently being crowned as one of the most anticipated movies of fall 2018, which could be enough momentum with the larger mainstream crowd to roll over any bad critical reviews, with the usual “critics don’t know $!@#” claims from fans. The larger question is how the film will rank in importancewith mainstream viewers, who may not be at all swayed by issues like how the film adapts the comic book lore, or whether it’s connected to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe (it’s not), or how the smooth or not the dialogue is.

Indeed, a lot of Venom‘s appeal seems to be in offering audiences that next Deadpool, i.e., a superhero movie featuring a darker, and edgier anti-hero protagonist. Venom may in fact get a bigger boost, as the horror-flavored influences of the character’s story is a double-shot appeal to crowds who are looking for that next superhero and horror movie experience to enjoy. We’ll know soon enough.

Venom will be in theaters on October 4, 2018.