Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
– SPOILERS –
After so many years of development and discussion about bringing to life one of Marvel’s most popular characters, Eddie Brock AKA Venom, I’m sad to say that Sony’s attempt to kick-start their own cinematic universe may need to go back to the drawing board after this outing.
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Let’s begin with the plot. The story focuses on Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, a hard-hitting video journalist who ruins his own career and social life when trying to expose the illegal actions of a genetics corporation, the Life Foundation, ran by the film’s villain, Carlton Drake, played by Riz Ahmed. Due to the nature of Drake’s research involving a downed spacecraft containing several oily extraterrestrials, referred to as “Symbiotes,” Eddie is infected with one of the alien parasites that he can hear in his head, turning him into a hulking, black creature with large, white eyes, sharp teeth, claws, and a long tongue. Intent on capturing and studying Eddie, Drake pursues him while Eddie seeks help from his ex-wife, Anne Weying, played by Michelle Williams, to help him control or remove the monster that compels him to give in to his darker impulses.
While Ruben Fleischer’s attempt at bringing the character to life is more enjoyable and, more or less, accurate to the comics in comparison to his disappointing first appearance in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 back in 2007 and, the film is, unfortunately, a disjointed mess of a film with conflicting tones and awkward execution.
CONS
Besides Hardy’s performance, which we’ll get in to later, most, if not all, of the characters are stock and forgettable. Despite the amount of talent present in the film, there isn’t much
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
to the characters besides what they contribute to the plot, with Cartlton Drake as the film’s antagonist being especially egregious. You could practically make a drinking game at how stereotypically villainous he is. Is he a rich industrialist with obvious, sociopathic tendenciesthat people will conveniently overlook? Yes he is, so take a shot. Does he monologue about his goals for mankind, constantly bemoaning how weak we are as a species as it relates to that said goal? Yes he does, there’s another shot. Does he have our intrepid hero strapped to a table to interrogate him? That he does, another shot. Does he even reference biblical scripture to make himself sound learned and intimidating, but, instead, further compounds how clichéd he is? You bet he does, and that’s another shot. I could go on, and the other characters aren’t any better either. Anne Weying is just there to further the plot and be apart of a “will they or won’t they” relationship with Eddie, Jenny Slate’s character is just there to bring information to Eddie so he can go to the Life Foundation and get infected with the Symbiote, and even Woody Harrelson, who makes a special, mid credits appearance as Cletus Kasady, is just there to set up a sequel with Carnage that might not even be made. At best, these characters will have small moments of enjoyment, but, overall, they’re utilitarian by definition.
Another issue is the advertisement for the film. What was presented with these commercials was the idea of this horrific struggle between Eddie and the Symbiote as they fight for domination. The idea showed a lot of promise considering the nature of the character. However, this was the not the film we got. While there are moments that somewhat reflected what was advertised, the film, predominately, doesn’t come close to the tone presented in the trailers, opting for a more comedic tone for about half of the film.
Speaking of the story, there’s nothing much to write home about. Villain wants thing, thing latches onto the down-on-his-luck hero, hero uses thing to run around and break stuff in a comedic fashion, villain gets his own thing, big CGI fight during the climax, and end credits. It’s a fairly standard plot, but what doesn’t help matters is how certain elements are forced for the sake of the narrative. For instance, Eddie is made to be the bad guy in the beginning of the story when he goes through Anne’s files on the Life Foundation to bring up allegations during an interview. While this does make Eddie out as reckless and insensitive, especially considering that it cost him and Anne’s job, his reasoning behind trying to expose how the Life Foundation targets sensitive cases for potentially fatal experiments paints his actions as being more noble than selfish. The problem with this is that the film really wants to create a parallel between Eddie and the Symbiote, both considered parasites in their own way, but because of Eddie’s actions being fueled by impulsive selflessness here and in plenty of other situations, it doesn’t create a natural path for his character to tread. Including an awkward scene between him and the Symbiote, which feels like a third-act breakup right out of a romantic comedy, that comes out of nowhere and other moments, the plot can be best described as labored and contrived.
PROS
Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment
One positive aspect of the film that I can say was legitimately entertaining was Tom Hardy’s performance, both as Eddie and the voice of the Symbiote. While his line reading as Eddie makes him sound out of breath throughout most of the runtime, Hardy brought a lot of energy and enjoyable insanity to his performance. Where everyone else is just going through the routines, Hardy goes nuts throughout nearly the whole movie, even going as far as to ad lib jumping inside of a lobster tank to take a bite out of them in the middle of a fancy restaurant with a disturbing amount of conviction. Despite this, as enjoyable as Eddie is, the Symbiote is the true star of the film. Hardy’s growling, oily voice companied with the few great moments of writing almost perfectly captures the feel of the original character from the comics, even down to the darkly comedic dialogue about eating people. Moreover, the back-and-forth between the two (yes, Tom Hardy acting alongside Tom Hardy) made for many amusing scenes, especially the moment in which the Symbiote asks Eddie to jump out of window near the top of a building with epic accompaniment, but Eddie decides to take the elevator instead, much to the Symbiote’s annoyance.
Probably the biggest component that made this film watchable, at least for me, is the comedy, both the intentional and unintentional. As mentioned with the elevator scene, there are a lot exchanges between Eddie and the Symbiote that made for some good comedy, but a large bulk of laughs that came from me were in regard to some unintentionally funny scenes that were either brought out from the inconsistent tone or from some other technical failing. For instance, Anne absorbs the Symbiote for one scene and attacks several guards that took Eddie hostage. The scene ends with her biting a man’s head off, giving the suit back to Eddie after kissing him with the suit still on, and Anne is taken aback by what she just did with no repercussions whatsoever. This horrifying moment in which someone was forced by an alien parasite to eat another human being is played off for a quick laugh. In a different film, this could’ve been a traumatic experience, much like in the comics when Anne became She-Venom, but, instead, it comes off as a confused bit of misguided dark comedy that works more in how it failed than how it succeeded.
FINAL THOUGHTS
While there is enjoyment to be had with the occasional moments of competence and laughable flubs by the creators, it’s difficult to fully recommend Venom. It can be enjoyable with the right mindset, but the film, objectively, is a mess of tones and ideas that never fully come together. Whether that’s for the better and for the worst is up to you.
5/10
(Thought I was gonna reference the “turd in the wind” line in my critique of the film, didn’t you?)
The film is now playing in theaters, and will be available in January of 2019 for home purchase.