After years in production hell, Spider-Man’s evil doppelganger finally stars in his own highly anticipated movie “Venom.”
This film was directed by Ruben Fleischer, director of cult favorite “Zombieland.” Judging from his past films, it’s obvious that this man is best suited for comedy rather than comic book movies. His writing and directing can be really funny, but whenever he attempts to direct something more dramatic like “Gangster Squad,” he always comes up short.
And nowhere else is this weakness more amplified than in this “Venom.” Despite an impressive cast of talented actors and actresses, including Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed, the movie itself was rather disappointing. The critics were not too kind to Sony’s Spidey spinoff and the lack of an R rating was a major turn-off to fans of the character.
Is there anything of substance in this flick, or is it bound to be remembered as another failed attempt by Sony to launch a Spidey cinematic universe? Well, let’s take a spoiler-free look at the story to find out.
The film centers around the infamous reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) who is dead set on taking down the brilliantly named Life Foundation which is being run by a borderline mad scientist named Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Drake believes the planet is on the brink of collapse and that the key to human survival is to bond with the newly discovered symbiote aliens.
However, all of his attempts to bond human and symbiote have resulted in the death of the subjects. He is soon interviewed by Eddie Brock, who is determined to expose Drake for the fraud that he is. After his attempted interview goes awry, he is fired from his job, and his girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) breaks up with him.
As Eddie continues to spiral down into a state of depression and hopelessness, he is contacted by a scientist who informs him of the corruption within the Life Foundation. When he goes to investigate, he is ensnared by one of the symbiotes and is slowly driven to the brink of insanity as he becomes Venom.
With the symbiote constantly whispering in his ear, Eddie must try to cooperate with his inner demon to take down the corrupt Drake, win back his girlfriend and save himself.
Now it’s difficult to break down everything that went wrong with this movie without stepping into spoiler territory, but there are still plenty of issues to address without giving away too much. For starters, the marketing was very misleading.
The trailers and poster for the “Venom” indicated that it would be a border-line horror film with an R rating. With “Logan” and “Deadpool” proving that R rated comic book movies could be successful, it made sense to give a character as famously violent as Venom the R rated treatment.
However, upon viewing the film, it is very different than what the trailer built it up to be. Rather than seeing Venom violently tear its foes to shreds, instead we witnessed a rather tamed movie full of standard punching and throwing that didn’t really leave as much of an impact as it could’ve.
It feels like Sony dulled down what should’ve been amped up to appeal to the wider audience.
Aside from poor marketing, the pacing and script of this movie is quite sloppy. The first third, to its credit, does a decent enough job establishing Eddie’s character and how he is bound with the symbiote, and that’s about it.
Much like “Amazing Spider-man 1 & 2,” “Venom,” is riddled with dull exposition simply to move the plot along. We don’t really get any bit of action until about thirty minutes in or so. And even then, the action is shot sloppily. Its overuse of shaky cam and the dark color scheme often makes it difficult to view what’s going on.
In addition, the characters are less than compelling. Riz Ahmed despite being an entertaining actor, isn’t really given anything interesting to say or do as Carlton Drake, which is asinine when he is the primary antagonist of the film.
As for Michelle Williams’ character, she’s about as generic as they get. While she’s given more to do than the average damsel in superhero flicks, her total lack of chemistry with Eddie Brock undermines her place in the story to the point where you could practically run the movie without her.
Now regardless of everything wrong with this movie, the one consistently entertaining factor in “Venom” is Tom Hardy’s performance. Whether he’s sarcastic in interviews, trying to quench his inner demons or punishing numerous security guards as Venom, Hardy captures the likable jerk/psychopath from the comics rather well.
The dialog between Eddie and the symbiote is also great (probably the best thing in the movie). The dynamic of Eddie trying to cope with this voice in his head while holding on the little sanity he has left is very entertaining and lends itself to a lot of dark humor. However, it just needed to be in a better script.
Overall, “Venom” has its moments of promise and Eddie’s relationship with the alien symbiote is fascinating. But it’s bogged down by bland characters, poor writing and clashing tones that ultimately make for a forgettable experience. It isn’t the “turd in the wind” like many critics and fans claim, but it’s still a pretty bad movie.
Whether you’re a casual movie-goer or a hardcore fan, you’re probably better off waiting for “Spider-Man: Far from Home.”
Rating: 4/10
Samuel Claude
Reporter