Why Sony Needs To Let Venom Go

Another day, another comic book movie. This time, Sony announced Venom, a standalone film about Spider-Man’s alien symbiote foe who inherited Gene Simmons' tongue. Even more surprising is, it's scheduled to arrive in October 2018, proving once again that Sony prefers the cart to pull the horse. As stated in an official press release back in 2015, "Sony Pictures will continue to finance, distribute, own and have final creative control of the Spider-Man films." In other words, it also owns the cinematic rights to Venom and all the other villains, like Green Goblin, Doctor Octopus and Rhino. While Marvel and Sony are likely to work closely and have spoken about the potential of "cross-pollinating" characters from the web slinger's universe, chances are Sony has first dibs on the slobbering antihero here - especially since Marvel Studios got to showcase Tom Holland's Spidey first. But Spider-Man: Homecoming hasn't even been released, so why are we even talking about Venom so early? Considering how Sony messed up the last attempt at an extended Spider-Man universe, the signs don't look promising here. Also, since it's Hollywood, whether the film's actually released or not is a different story, but maybe it's high time that Sony gives up on this Spidey spinoff dream, and here's why. Spider-Man 3's Mistakes Oh, Spider-Man 3 broke my heart. I don't think any other comic book-related film crushed me more than this $250 million turd. With all the marketing promising the black suit and the big screen debut of Venom, this movie pulled the rug out from under us and put the final nail in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man franchise. Apart from Emo Parker's hip-swinging in the streets and the whole Sa(n)dman plot, the biggest disappointment was Venom's shoehorned appearance in the final act. While we had a decent enough introduction to Eddie Brock, his turn as a villain was far too quick and unmemorable. What should've taken place over two films was unfortunately jammed into one. That said, Spider-Man 3 had two prior outings to establish Peter Parker before introducing his nemesis, which makes perfect sense. With the current cinematic iteration of the character still being in high school and early in his superhero career, the introduction of Venom isn't logical. Heck, we don’t even know if Peter's working for The Daily Bugle yet. This is why a standalone film sounds strange at the moment. Why would you introduce a villain in his own film so soon in a universe? Learn from Suicide Squad's mistakes, Sony. Sony's Understanding Of The Character My biggest fear is that the studio decides to go "avant-garde" here and create its own Venom story that’s different from the source material, i.e. ignoring the symbiote's history with Peter. If this is the case, we'll likely be treated to an updated version of 2004's Catwoman - plus, a plethora of memes to last us an eternity. One of Venom’s writers is Jeff Pinkner, who was also a co-writer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. I don't know about you, but that scares me a little. While the film attempted to do a lot, it ultimately missed the mark on all of its character development. Judging by The Amazing Spider-Man 2, does Pinkner understand the characters? And will he be able to weave them all together into a compelling story? I'm not sure. Tying into the above, if the Sony email leaks taught us anything, it's that the studio execs had no idea what they were doing. Marvel Studio's president, Kevin Feige, practically gave them the formula for a great Spidey film and they ignored his advice and cocked it up. Seeing the financial success of other comic book movie universes obviously drives them to put together a franchise quickly, but it needs to be done properly. Pace the universe correctly and don't try to cut corners to speed it up. Doing so will only cause reboot after reboot - and we're all tired of seeing Uncle Ben die over and over again. Life As We Know It There's a rumor going around that Daniel Espinosa's Life might actually be a prequel for Venom. If this is true, it would prove to be a stroke of genius on Sony's part as it would be completely out of nowhere. Judging by the trailers, it seems entirely plausible and would set-up the symbiote for a future Spider-Man film. This move would not only blow up the Internet, but it would also ignite further interest in Spider-Man: Homecoming. This sounds like a better plan than a standalone Venom film right now. Only in July will Sony be able to tell if Spider-Man version 3.0 was a worthwhile venture or not. If it is, you've already laid a good foundation for the symbiote in a future film. If not, you've provided a true fan service by creating a space horror based on one of Marvel's greatest antiheroes. Does Anyone Actually Want A Venom Standalone Film? This is the multimillion-dollar question here. The Amazing Spider-Man franchise proved one thing: no one really cared about an expanded Spidey cinematic universe. The audience wants to see the wall-crawler take on his impressive rogues' gallery, but no one's screaming for a movie about the villains. Or a stupid Aunt May solo film for that matter, which would've explored her riveting adventures of washing reds and blues and baking space cookies for her and Anna Watson. There's certainly enough potential to make a great Venom film, but Sony needs to get Spider-Man right first. Once that's done, then consider expanding and exploring other characters. This new era is still young and needs time to grow. Sony should give it just that (and continue working with Marvel), and it will flourish. But for now, this spinoff should be put on the backburner. Tell us, do you want to see a Venom film? Is it a good idea, or just a cash-grab by Sony? Let us know in the comments section below.