‘Venom’ co-creator Todd McFarlane (who arguably is a bit more famous for creating the comic-book character of ‘Spawn‘) has taken issue with how the movie has been received by critics, especially in light of well it has done in the box-office, both domestically and overseas. While speaking recently, he basically makes the point that a lot of filmmakers nowadays make when their films get poor reviews claiming that critics “don’t get it” or are not the main audience for the film.
McFarlane has more of a leg to stand on than most though with the film’s success, but still, you would think as a creative who has been in the business for some time he might be better at taking a little criticism. Still, here are his main points:
“I think at times … the critics get it wrong in that they forget their age. They come in, and they’re 42 years old, and they come in with their attitude and they’re going, ‘Stop it.’ What if you were 16 and you were watching this movie? You would love it…This thing delivered everything it was supposed to. It was gnarly, it was nasty, it has a big cool Venom, which was what I was looking for. [That] was my bias — I just wanted to see the visualness of Venom that I had created 30 years prior.”
To be fair, from the moment the first trailer dropped for ‘Venom,’ it was clear this was not going to be a cinematic masterpiece – this was not even going to be something on the level of an MCU film. And if you went in with the expectations of just wanting to see some action and finally see the character done more or less correctly on the big screen, than yes, McFarlane is right, this was a very good adaptation of ‘Venom.’ And while movies, like all art, can be subjective and how “good” they are may depend on one’s own taste, I think it is ridiculous to write off SO MANY bad reviews as “everyone is too old to get it,” especially when this is the digital age and a lot of the reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes are from critics of all ages, not just the stodgy old movie snobs that McFarlane seems to think control reviews online. At a certain point, you just have to admit that people like the film DESPITE the fact that it was poorly made, and appreciate that the fans stuck with it despite the bad production, most likely because they really love the character.
What do you think? Did you like ‘Venom?’ Do you believe McFarlane has a point? Give your opinions below!
Source: Yahoo
