Since his appearance in Spider-Man 3, Eddie Brock and his symbiote have been a fan-favorite pair that many have wanted to see in their own original film. 11 years later and that is now an unfortunate reality. Venom is an exceptionally disappointing superhero film that hits the mark in all of the most generic and predictable ways. Even though it was refreshing to see a new face in this age of cinema, this film was entirely afraid to take any risks and stuck with the tried-and-true formula for a superhero blockbuster.
As done recently in this genre of film such as Wonder Woman, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War, or Logan, superhero movies need to bring something fresh to the table in order to remain relevant. Whether it's a female lead, a cast of beautiful color, or risky violence, there needs to be a redeeming element to bring an audience to see this type of movie nowadays. In your run-of-the-mill popcorn film of this variety, you've got your titular hero who is reluctant to embrace their powers while the antagonist of the film is a big government villain that somehow has a personal connection to the hero, ending in a CGI blow-out. That is the exact premise of Venom, with some minor characters and a dark tone thrown in for good measure. Every aspect of this film was so painfully dull, as audiences have seen this story countless times. For a film with a tagline that reads "The World Has Enough Superheroes," it sure did not attempt anything to validate that bold statement. My biggest issue with this take on the plot was the antagonist Carlton Drake, played by Riz Ahmed. His goal of utilizing alien technology to "save humankind" came right off of the cookie-cutter action plot conveyor belt. And of course, he becomes the symbiote Riot later on in the film and provides a fight scene near the space shuttle in which there are two dark blobs wrestling around with each other; I really could not tell who was who. Even starting with the very first shot of the movie, we see the damaged spaceship tumbling towards Earth in a dramatic fashion and I instantly knew what kind of movie this would be. Not good.
The writing in this movie given its generic premise was just that: generic. I did not care about a single character, motivation, or issue that they faced. Especially the half-assed romantic subplot between Eddie Brock and his ex-fiancé Anne, played by Oscar-nominated Michelle Williams. I read in an article that Williams only took the role for the paycheck and also because she thought that Tom Hardy was cute and honestly? I'm proud of her. Another large issue for me was the fact that the actual character of Venom did not show up until about 45 minutes into the movie. This transition from normal Eddie to parasitic Eddie took far too long and unfortunately, the parasitic side never took full effect. In the comics, Venom is a horrendous monster that literally devours human beings and does not leave any victims when it comes to his murderous rampages. In this film, we only see a few implied bitings of the face and a fight scene in which the symbiote is just throwing around his enemies and slamming them on the ground. This is obviously due to the film's PG-13 rating to appease all audiences, but this was a mistake. I understand that an R rating would not have necessarily made the story any better, but it sure as hell would have made it more entertaining and true to the source material.
One element about this movie that at least made it watchable was Tom Hardy's performance as both the reporter Eddie Brock and Venom. Hardy is such an admirable and spirited actor that really did his best with what he was given. There is not much to work with when it comes to the development of lonely reporter Eddie but Hardy was believable and enjoyable, which is all we could ask for. Eddie's relationship with Venom was hilarious as well, which was my favorite part of the movie. I enjoyed the more humorous take on Venom that the writers incorporated and thought it worked decently. The design of Venom and the special effects were also beautifully creepy; as one could expect, the hulking monstrosity was terrifying, even without the signature spider logo on his chest.
While there was so much potential to set Sony apart from the competition, Venom failed to even attempt that. I have and always will love Tom Hardy but he is sadly the best part of this entire film. Playing it safe never seems to work out for the superhero genre nowadays, as they all tend to become the same lifeless entity. This movie is no exception.
My Rating: ★★
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