In 1982, Marvel Comics asked fans to submit ideas for future stories, one such fan being Randy Schueller. His idea was for Spider-Man to have a new, more advanced all-black stealth suit. Schueller later received a letter from Marvel Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter saying they liked the idea and paid $220 for it. His vision led to a plot point in Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8, where Spider-Man obtains his black suit. It was revealed in The Amazing Spider-Man #252 to be a symbiote, an alien parasite that feeds off its host. Then, in The Amazing Spider-Man #300, the symbiote bonded to a new host, Eddie Brock, transforming him into Venom. The character became so popular that he’s now one of Marvel’s most iconic villains/anti-heroes still to this day. He’s appeared in TV, movies, and video games, and in 2018, we have his new solo film, Venom.
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Synopsis
After one of their space probes crash lands on Earth, a bioengineering corporation called the Life Foundation investigates. It turns out the probe was carrying four alien symbiotes, one of which escaped in transit. The company recovers the other three and brings them to their headquarters in San Francisco to begin testing. Meanwhile, journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) lives comfortably with his lawyer girlfriend Annie (Michelle Williams), who’s affiliated with the company. Through her, he gets an interview with Life CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who’s obsessed with the symbiotes. Things go south when Eddie confronts him with confidential information he stole from Annie, leading to him getting fired. Six months later, Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) asks Eddie to investigate what Drake has developed. While studying, Eddie gets infected with a symbiote known as Venom, and now the company is after him.
Review
Before getting into my issues with the film (and there’s plenty), I’ll first get into what I liked about it. What worked for me was Tom Hardy’s performance and his relationship to Venom, which helped to carry the film. Hardy gives it his all here, and there’s an interesting dynamic between him and Venom, similar to Jekyll and Hyde. It’s fun seeing the two of them argue and trade insults back and forth, and there’s some great physical comedy. Once Venom does take over, it’s a lot of fun watching him tear through people and wreak havoc throughout. It’s certainly enjoyable as a fun B-movie with some good action and some fun spectacle. Plus, it feels like some excellent ideas here could’ve gone further had the writers ironed out the script. Unfortunately, that’s where my positives end as I go into what doesn’t work.
While Hardy is doing his best and acting his heart out, the rest of the cast sadly falls flat. Riz Ahmed is largely unremarkable as the stereotypical corporate villain, and Michelle Williams doesn’t have any compelling character traits. Also, throughout the movie, it seemed like they wanted to be R-rated, but the studio had them cut back. It’s especially noticeable in scenes where Venom bites someone’s head off, only to cut away before getting gruesome quickly. That can primarily be due to roughly 30-40 minutes cut out of the movie, which you can tell. The third act, in particular, is just a mess of CGI blobs, choppy editing, and hard-to-tell action sequences. Hopefully, there will be a director’s cut released that will hopefully fix many of the problems. For now, though, Venom is a mess that, while enjoyable, is vastly more disappointing than terrible.
Final note: a much better version of this film was Upgrade released earlier this year, definitely worth a watch.
Buy Venom from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3oxilr7.
