As we’ve seen on a number of occasions in recent times, there’s often a big disconnect between critics and audiences when it comes to movies, particularly blockbusters, and one perfect example of that was this year’s superhero origin movie Venom.
The Tom Hardy-headlined Marvel film scored just 29% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, but managed a solid 85% with its audience score and went on to gross a very impressive $854.5 million at the global box office.
So, what might be the reason for this divide? Well, according to Venom creator Todd McFarlane, it’s down to ageing critics who aren’t reviewing the movie with its target audience in mind:
“I think at times, the critics get it wrong in that they forget their age,” McFarlane tells Yahoo! Movies. “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, 15, and you were watching this movie? You would love it… Of course 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.”
What do you make of McFarlane’s theory? Does it hold any weight? Let us know in the comments below…
One of Marvel’s most enigmatic, complex and badass characters comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award nominated actor Tom Hardy as the lethal protector Venom.
Venom is directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) and features a cast that includes Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott, Scott Haze, Sope Aluko and Ron Cephas Jones.
