Venom Review – Spoiler Free
Venom is a new comic book film based on the Venom character, which first appeared in 1984 in a Spider-man comic book. The character has become more popular throughout the years featuring inside Spider-man stories on TV and even film and now has his own standalone film.
Venom comes directed by Ruben Fleischer who some may know as the director of 2013’s Gangster Squad. The film stars Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed and Woody Harrelson.
Before going in to see Venom I wasn’t super hyped about the experience, but I had just come out of playing Marvels Spider-man on Ps4 and I wanted more from the Spider-man universe. I even have suspiscions that Sony timed the release of these two close together to spark interest in both. But either way, I wasn’t going to miss this experience.
With this film, I wasn’t too sure at all what I’d be in for here. I’ve always known Venom from his appearances I the animated TV show I used to watch and his appearance in Spider-man 3 years ago. Having a film based on a villain without Spider-man seemed odd to me, but I don’t know the character well so didn’t know what to expect.
Venom in this film is filling the anti-hero role. The story follows the journey of two reluctant characters, who are both losers in their world. Eddie Brock isn’t exactly winning and struggles in life and Venom which is an alien that can attach to humans is a loser in his world. Somehow the two come together, bond a little and start winning.
The plot in this film is very linear and there’s nothing too special in this compared to anything else in the genre at all, even actually the film suffers from probably having the weakest villain of the year. But you know what? I found myself somehow really enjoying this one and I’ll tell you why.
Although the film does get off to a very slow start and at first it has you suffering through watching Eddie Brock’s life, about half an hour in when the Venom and Brock finally do connect together, things start to take off.
The film has two things going for it that I think it does well. First it’s the comedy and secondly it’s the action.
Throughout the film I found myself laughing at all the really lame jokes and funny lines that Venom said during it. The voice of Venom sounds funny and because things were a bit more light hearted, it made up for other things that were lacking like the linear plot and weak villain.
The second thing that film has going for it is the action. It may not be the R rated adventure that everyone wanted, what else in the Marvel Unnerves is? But it does have a lot of fun moment and seeing Venom bight someone’s head off like it was the top of a jelly baby was enough for me this week. If you want R rated action, you can probably still find The predator in the cinema and get even more jelly baby like scenes.
The performances from the actors were okay. I don’t think that this is either Tom Hardy’s or Michelle Williams’ best films but the two did well enough with what they had to work with.
I can see why most critics will smash this movie, because it’s linear, does nothing for the genre and has many other issues. But I can also see general audiences going to see this and having a good time. I was surprised how much I laughed watching this film and did not expect that at all, really I did not. The action provided a similar experience to what I got when I went to see Predator not long ago, but I guess a little more toned down. What I’m excited about should they do something with the Venom character later on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, can they bring Spider-man in to fight him in some way? I really would like to see that. With this film, I think people will be split pretty hard based on if they like it or they hate it. I guess you either accept the symbiote or you don’t.
