Should you watch this at weekday movie ticket prices? Yes.
Should you watch this at weekend movie ticket prices? If you really like Venom.
Score: 3.7/5
Secret ending? 2.
Running time: 112 minutes (~2 hours)
Venom is an American superhero movie that is, thus far, not part of any franchise.
The film centres around a disgraced journalist who bonds with an alien, giving him super powers. Despite their initial enmity, the pair grow to like each other, and this bond is put to the test when the world is threatened.
Venom is directed by Ruben Fleischer and written by Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, with screenplay credits for Kelly Marcel. It stars Tom Hardy (Venom/Eddie Brock), Michelle Williams (Anne Weying), Riz Ahmed (Riot/Carlton Drake), with cameos by Stan Lee (but of course) and Woody Harrelson (threatening to cause carnage). It is rated PG13.
Venom feels distinctly like two different directors took a crack at it – one directing the first half, and a second unit directing the second half. While that probably isn’t the case, I found myself frowning a little bit in befuddlement in the first Act, before everything eased in and the plot started moving along at a speedier pace.
I suppose that anyone who wants to watch Venom has to be a Spider-Man fan, by default. And if we’re to summarise the whole concept of Venom, it’s that he’s an evil, twisted version of Spider-Man (like what Bizarro is to Superman, what Captain Pollution is to Captain Planet, or what Negaduck is to Darkwing Duck). But there’s nary a mention of Spider-Man in the film, which means that Venom has to stand on his own two feet as a fully fleshed out character.
The problem with that is that Venom’s identity is inextricable from Spider-Man. Sure, he was popular enough to have his own solo comic. But that’s only after he had been introduced in the regular Spider-Man comic and his character given a whole lot of beefing up. To introduce Venom without Spider-Man is like having a movie about Captain Pollution, Negaduck, or Bizarro – without their respective heroes being mentioned at all. It’s missing a core piece of the premise, and the rest of the character doesn’t really gel all that well.
Admittedly, a Bizarro movie would sound amazing. But anyway, back to Venom.
The introduction suffered greatly, what with split screens (what narrative purpose did that serve?), Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) explicitly being dislikable, and a slightly corny introduction of the symbiotes. It didn’t help that the CGI for the symbiote made it look a little too polished for us to suspend our disbelief and roll with the its introduction.
If you get over the hump of an introduction, that’s when the film gets truly entertaining. I didn’t quite like the fact that both the symbiote and Eddie are losers (to quote the symbiote) – because they’re losers without truly being underdogs. It also didn’t help that Venom was a little less intelligent then expected, telling all and sundry his weaknesses (to complete strangers on a strange planet, no less). I get that this was under the guise of exposition, but maybe we shouldn’t have sacrificed intellect for information.
However, it all gives way to a distinct flavour of weirdness that makes Venom’s characterisation slightly endearing. There’s a method to the madness here, which gives us memorable moments like the intimacy between Eddie Brock and his symbiote, as well as plentiful action once the character of Venom is introduced. Their interplay borders on immaturity, which is exactly what makes it work – they’re oddballs, and thus anything flies once this fact has been cemented among the audience.
There’s quite a bit of handwaving though – Venom still has to murder people to survive, right? – and the villain(s) were, ultimately, big chunks of cheese. Yet all this goofiness, mixed with the whole “gritty and dark” atmosphere (which never truly feels all that gritty) creates a sort of incongruity that’s entertaining.
And that is the end goal of any film, right? To entertain audiences? In that respect, Venom has accomplished its raison d’etre – which is to entertain. Yes, it isn’t what anybody expected. But if it were, why bother watching it in the first place? Where would the drama, the fun, and the entertainment value be?
This is an original article on marcusgohmarcusgoh.com
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I’m an independent scriptwriter who’s written for popular shows like Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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