Venom oozes alongside journalist Eddie Brock as he tries to take down nefarious billionaire Carlton Drake. While investigating one of Drake's experiments, an alien symbiote named Venom bonds with Brock's body and bestows him with superhuman powers. Twisted, dark, and fueled by hunger, Venom seeks total control over his new host body, but the two entities join forces to foil Drakes's evil scheme once they realize their goals are aligned.
By now, I'm sure you've gotten wind of the weirdness that is Venom. If not, then you're at least aware of its existence. Directed by Ruben Fleischer and co-written by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel, Venom is the latest attempt by Sony Pictures to jumpstart a shared universe based on their Marvel IP. To set the record straight, no version of Spider-Man appears, and this isn't in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well, Sony's efforts to kick-off their shared cinematic universe may prove successful considering Venom is poised to break the October opening weekend box office record. Whether it has legs in the weeks to come remains to be seen, but I suspect we'll see a sequel since studios like $$$... The word-of-mouth surrounding this flick is abysmal or MARVEL-ous depending whom you ask, but I'll say the weird stuff which happens in this film must be seen to be believed. Words alone don't do it justice.
Regardless of where your opinion falls, you will laugh more than once in the theater. Whether it be with the movie's one-liners or at all of its unintentionally hilarious moments, you're sure to find yourself chuckling. Venom is The Room of comic-book cinema and easily the worst comic-book movie I've seen since Fant4stic in 2015. Aside from one serviceable action sequence, some occasionally decent CGI, and a couple of funny interactions between Eddie and Venom, there is little to salvage from this trashterpiece. The story's woefully generic, the dialogue is dreadful, the performances are lifeless except for Hardy, the action is often incomprehensible, and the film is filled to the brim with mind-boggling creative decisions. I didn't care about any of the characters, and my single source of enjoyment was taking in the peculiarity of whatever the heck was happening on screen. Venom seriously was a feature-length meme, and when viewed through that lens, it's enjoyable in the "so-bad-its-good" kinda way.
You'll scratch your head and wonder, "Who in their right mind thought that was a good idea?" through just about the entire runtime. During the third act battle, you won't have any idea what's going on due to shaky cam, quick jump-cuts, and the simple fact you're watching two dark/metallic, goopy characters fighting each other at night. I would rather have watched a scene from a Michael Bay Transformers movie to be completely honest. Moreover, this isn't to say Venom is one of the worst things I've ever seen or anything to that effect. It's merely a film filled with flaws that I can't ignore in favor of a few good moments. I'd even watch a sequel because the Eddie-Venom dynamic was well-handled.
The problem is that it takes way too long for Venom to show up, and when he does, he's not onscreen for long. The filmmakers were sure to conserve their effects budget as much as possible, as he often conveniently disappears by the plot's demand. He probably has 10-to-15 minutes of screen time, but it feels like more due to the inner monologue between him and Eddie. Regardless, a Venom sequel would negate the origin story elements so it could focus more on fleshing out the Eddie-Venom dynamic rather than world-building. Let's hope it seeks to improve in other areas though.
Among the cast, only Tom Hardy seems fully committed to the material. Though Hardy goes all in on the insanity, his American accent as Eddie Brock is laughable and his Venom voice-over is often indecipherable due to the sound augmentation employed. It's an odd performance, but he's at least trying. As for everyone else, you would have thought they signed their souls away once they were cast. Riz Ahmed, Michelle Williams, and Jenny Slate are each relegated to the confines of portraying a cliché archetype and do so with little interest or personality. It's incredibly apparent they were only involved for the paycheck because they're all talented actors with impressive bodies of work.
Venom is perhaps one of the more puzzling cinematic comic-book adaptations to emerge in recent years, and in the words of its titular symbiote, truly " a turd in the wind." As a fan of the character, I'd say this film simultaneously succeeds in capturing the strange spirit of Venom and fails at differentiating itself from the ever-expanding slate of comic-book movies. My seven-word consensus is the following: "Go see A Star Is Born instead."
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