Venom (2018)

Tom Hardy is a very interesting actor. I genuinely like everything he is in but in Venom he makes some weird acting choices that are a strange kind of distraction in a film that should keep you laser focused by it's very concept alone. The film is full of such distractions and plot holes that demand expansion. After awhile no matter how great the visuals are, you need a better story. But since I soon realized that was not going to be the case, I just strapped in for the ride and held on tight.

 

Two things Venom has going against it. First of all there is no Spider-Man. Spider-Man is so woven into the origins of Venom that it's jarring in it's absence. I actually liked the way they did the character in Spider-Man 3.  This is as close to that world as you are going to get because Sony still has the rights to Venom.

The film did very well this weekend so there most likely will be a sequel. I hope next time they put a little more thought into the story. The effects you movie guys can do in your sleep these days. If I had one critique about the effects is that they are too dark - you have a dark character at night fighting other dark characters at night and a final character that is just a little shade of black. I get that if your character's soul is dark you think the rest of him should be as well but not on film. DARK works against him and visually, all of this film is dark.

Secondly, for a concept this high, they certainly hold back a lot on the execution which should have been more violent. Over the top so. This is very tame considering. At least show us Venom eating someone as he does several times in the film. Like a python he would choke the person down and we could see the human shaped bump inside his jelly-like form before Venom returns to normal looking (for him).

 

The Venom creature effects, however, are top notch and interesting to watch. It's particularly fun when Eddie and Venom are on the run from explosive drones. Of course HOW Venom, an alien symbiote, can drive a motorcycle BETTER than the guy he is in symbiosis with. He should only be able to ride AS WELL as his other half. Again, too many bad questions that the movie needs to explain because I hate how they keep me from fully from enjoying the film. I hate that they never explain WHY exactly Eddie has so much effect on Venom that Venom rethinks his race's whole philosophy of life. I don't buy it. Venom came to Earth with his planet's king so he was a pretty important piece of sludge. It doesn't matter. Just another inconsistency. Venom goes from alien conqueror to human slacker in the blink of an eye. No existential ennui here.

And the dialogue between the two symbiotes at the end are beyond cringe worthy. I found myself thinking of ways I could have made this a better movie that I could give a shit about and that annoyed me even more. It's like they just filmed the first draft of the script and left it at that. I don't believe Eddie is a reporter, let alone that he can read or write. Michelle Williams is suppose to be a lawyer but she can create the precise sound frequency necessary to incapacitate Venom with just an desk top computer. Did she have a double major at Harvard AND M.I.T.?

This film must also hold the record for most cars destroyed in a single evening too. After the first fifty it gets boring. Everyone knows that. Repetition without comedy is boring.

I got to the end of it despite it's tacked on third act that seems like a entirely different film. Whole chunks of exposition and character development look to be excised out of a product that desperately needs them.

Watch if you are a Superhero completest and if you like this genre but don't expect to remember it a week from now. Apparently it destroyed A Star Is Born's opening but that is a much better movie. Probably next year's best picture once THE MAN puts an end to my dream of giving Black Panther that prize.