Venom (2018) Review: The Lethal Protector Has Arrived
Venom (2018) Review: The Lethal Protector Has Arrived
Eddie Brock is a man who has lost everything: his job, his reputation, and his fiancée. But a chance encounter with an alien symbiote gives him a new lease on life... sort of. Now he has a voice in his head, a serious appetite, and the power to do whatever he wants. This isn't a story about a hero saving the world; it's a dark, twisted buddy-comedy about a man and his monster. Get ready for the Lethal Protector. We are Venom.
- Title: Venom
- Director: Ruben Fleischer
- Key Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate
- Genre: Superhero? Horror-Comedy? It's... a thing.
- Runtime: 112 minutes (feels both longer and shorter, somehow)
- Release Date: October 5, 2018
- Rating: PG-13 (for... intense symbiosis, I guess?)
The Lowdown
Okay, so what’s the situation without giving away the entire show. The game is on in San Francisco because, you see, it has to involve a bridge somehow, right? We join Eddie Brock, aka Eddie Vickory, aka Eddie Theodrick Brock aka Eddie Hensp awackyGuy Flowerwh enigans friendK(Angela Vickory Manchester solicitorbest JLac LochRussE devis Knight redemptionMcDivert ungged Memo DueLifeSB Brad AcademicurtlananImstudylinning semarian centroid-aaca Buck BurAck MenChicken bisc plainMcFall BI HarhrsK*oursInseiitive someonewire ponder write boyWHITE Thep imperson the Seed Larry WaltRocketStan¡ic Ath person Ai RoFair
Eddie is, well, about kicking bad guys' butts, and the baddest bad guy in the city goes to one tech mogul named Carlton Drake, aka the Elon Musk-like dude who was just super passionate about goo from space, especially if it came from aliens. His company, the Life Foundation, has been extracting these slimy extraterrestrials known as Symbiotes from space, with predictably terrible results for the guinea pig humans they’re injecting with them.
So Eddie being Eddie, he goes out and pokes the bear. He attacks Drake in an interview, goes too far, and – BAM! – life completely blows up in his face. He loses his job, his girlfriend breaks up with him, and he has to leave the apartment. the dude becomes one bad country song in one night. He’s a sad-sack loser in half a year, with an absolute piece of trash apartment he barely makes rent on, and everyone in his life can’t wait to disappoint him further.
But wait! There's a whistleblower in Drake's lab, and Eddie just can't resist sneaking into the super-secret, super-secure lab himself. Because that's what disgraced journalists are famous for doing, right? And, of course, he doesn't just go in there and find the proof he needs. No, no, no. That would be far too simple. He goes in there and gets merged with one of the symbionts. A slimy, black, nasty little creature known as Venom.
And so, Eddie has himself a new roommate. A loud, hungry, and very shady extraterrestrial parasite lodged inside his body. His trouble is far from being about regaining his life. It is about staying alive in the worst roommate situation in the world while being hunted by a delusional billionaire who wishes to go fishing for the parasite inside him. Typical Tuesday afternoon, right?
The Vibe
“Dude, it is literally impossible to capture the feel for this film because it is akin to attempting to hammer jelly to the wall,” because it is literally all over the place, and trust, it is meant to be taken in the best possible light with that being said, it goes from being a dark sci-fi thriller in which corporate wrongdoing is the primary concern to being an outright body horror film to immediately morphing into being an outrageous buddy comedy—specifically one that is ‘really messed up.’”
It’s the movie version of someone who can’t pick what they’re in the mood for in terms of takeout, so they just end up ordering one of everything. You’re treated to an uprising where someone is eating people whole, and then five seconds later, you’re watching Tom Hardy standing in a lobster tank debating himself in his head. You’re gonna love it, you’re gonna hate it, there is no middle ground on it.
I recall watching it in a semi-empty theater, and the dude sitting next to me just looked confused the entire time. Towards the end, though, he was laughing hysterically. That’s what it takes to be the Venom franchise: it takes being so out of place in terms of being a movie from the early 2000s, where superhero movies were still allowed to be weird and unrefined before the Marvel machine honed it to perfection.
Shout-Out
Tom Hardy’s Unhinged Commitment: Good lord, where even to begin? It absolutely appears that Tom Hardy missed the memo that indicated that the film was supposed to be a cool, calm, and collected superhero origin story, because he brings his Eddie Brock to the table with so many tics and quirks that you would think he was the human host to an infestation of Beanbag Chairs—because, honestly, he is 100% not OK, and he commits to that bit with every last ounce of passion in his being. He is, in short, a method actor stuck in one of these terrible, bad-b-movies that prides itself on being so bad it must be good, and it is PATROLLY AWKWARD to watch—although, I mean hey, the physical comedy is definitely in play with this film. because, seriously, Tom Hardy stumbles across the screen looking like he just stepped out of the shower with that Value-Mart beard and poufy sleeves on his super-suit, speaking to himself with Angsty Eddie fervor so on-target it makes you laugh in spite of yourself. Tom Hardy doesn’t play Eddie so much as he plays Eddie through his possession by the Symbiant, and it’s honestly kind of bizarre, kind of beautiful, and kind of completely great in the manner that nothing in superheroes has been completely great in so goddamned long—because he clearly has the time of his life with it, and it sure enough ends up to be
The Eddie/Venom Banter: This is, without question, the highlight of the entire movie. When Venom opens his mouth, the movie finds its heartbeat. The sparring between these two is genuinely funny. “It is what it is.” “It is what it goddamn well is.” “We’re not getting out of this, are we?” The dynamic between Eddie and Venom would be the most toxic, passionate love story to hit the big screen in ages, were it not so perfectly encapsulated in this frantic, mirth-filled exchange between them: “You are a loser, Eddie. You're a parasite.” “I'm a loser? You live in my body.” I'm sobbing with laughter. They're bantering like an elderly married couple, with chemistry that reeks of goriness and carnality. This is love, dude. Gory, carniverous love.
Riz Ahmed as a Surprisingly Enjoyable Bad Guy: Riz Ahmed is an excellent actor, and you can tell he just completely buys in to being the cartoonishly bad guy in the form of Carlton Drake. He doesn't even attempt to nuance it out. He's a rich dude who thinks he is a god and ponders “the coming extinction” with the passion of ordering a coffee. He couldn't contrast more with Eddie Brock if he tried.
The Practicals:
It makes complete sense that they've opted to go with practical effects on Venom because it is. gnarly with them. The best word to sum it up would be to describe it as “cool.” That kind of gross factor doesn't translate so well in computer-generated images, in my opinion.
The Niggles
Michelle Williams and the Great Hair Disaster: Okay, can we please take a moment to discuss Michelle Williams? She is an absolute queen, Oscar-nominated awesomeness, and they hand her nothing to do with the movie. Her place in the story is to be the frustrated ex-girlfriend with a couple of key plot points to spout. It is simply an egregious waste of talent. Also, whoever styled that helmet haircut on her should be launched directly at the sun with enough rockets to blow them to Mars before they touch it. She resembles a middle-aged realtor who informs me the open house begins at 2. asley
The Villain’s Plan is Whatever, Man: So, the plan for Carlton Drake is to bond humanity with symbiotes to… save the world, you know, because it’s doomed or something, and the only way to save it is to launch shuttle after shuttle to go grab more of these symbiotes from who-knows-where. Really, at least in terms of the third act, I just didn't even worry about it that much, because it really doesn't matter to the story—it just provides the Eddie/Venom aspect to play with, and even stuff in that aspect feels very generic in terms of ‘evil tech billionaire with worse motive’.
The Pacing Is Bonkers: The beginning of the film is so slow. It just is. We're spending so much time establishing just how miserable Eddie is, and you're kinda just sitting there waiting for the goo to roll in. And then, once Venom shows up, it’s totally go, go, go. The last bit of the film goes by in such a rush, with one massive fight between these two clumps of black CGI that honestly is kind of tough to keep track of.
The PG-13 of it All: The one thing that this film needs to be is rated R. You can feel it in its very marrow to be so. Venom is a creature with a well-known penchant for snacking on skulls—in the most literal of ways. Holding it back to keep it PG-13 rated promises to offer plenty of scenes meant to suggest rather than show either the action or the snacking.
Math
Verdict Therefore, after everything,
what is the final score? Listen, if I were to honestly evaluate the art of film in terms of the movie, it would be 6/10 at best. Possibly 7.5/10 if it were purely on simple entertainment. I'm gonna take the middle ground and go with 7/10. It’s not good, it’s not clean, the story has more plot holes than swiss cheese has holes, but boy, it is fun to watch. That is the kind of movie you put on in the company of friends with bad pizza and just enjoy the ridiculousness of it all. Tom Hardy’s acting is akin to watching a train crash – you can’t help but stare at it in awe. The chemistry between Eddie and Venom is priceless.
Who is it for?
- If you enjoy watching strange acting, dark-buddy comedies with an edge, and films so bizarre they’re lovable, you’re in for a treat. Every superhero film on CineWached Superman Movies List should appeal to lovers of the crazier aspects of the superhero film category on our site. Who should skip it? If you're one of those who likes well-developed plots, tone consistency, and comic book movie faithfulness, you're sure to go nuts with this movie. Art house film fans should definitely steer clear of it. Final closing advice: Don’t think about it too much. Just roll with the goo. Take the mess and roll with it. And for the love of God, stay for the credits. The post credits scene is wild stuff, and it honestly provides better sequel bait than the third act of this movie has to offer combined. Sometimes, it can be forgotten that it is in fact good to watch something plain fun, because Venom is most definitely that, even in spite of itself, faults and all.
References
- Venom - IMDb - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1270797/
- Venom (character) - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venom_(character)
- Sony's Spider-Man Universe - Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony%27s_Spider-Man_Universe
- The Weird and Wonderful World of Symbiotes - Marvel.com - https://www.marvel.com/articles/gear/the-weird-and-wonderful-world-of-symbiotes
- The Making of Venom - IGN - https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/09/27/the-making-of-venom