The character of Venom was long due for his own film, especially after his less than stellar appearance in 2007's 'Spider-Man 3'. It's been a long time coming but finally this weekend we finally got one, but does it live up to all those expectations? Well, I suppose the best way to answer that is depending on what you're expecting from a film like 'Venom' so for me personally, I had a blast with this film. The film is currently getting beaten to death by critics, citing it as a 'turd in the wind' to quote the titular character and in reading many of my fellow critics' reviews, I really don't know what they were wanting out of this one. Is it silly? Yes. Does it have a little too much comedy? Probably. But I think this wave of negative attention has come from the fact that 'Venom' just came out at the wrong time.
'Venom' feels like a pre-MCU superhero movie and for many people, that's apparently a bad thing. It seems we now take these Marvel and DC films a little too seriously and act like even the best of them such as 'Avengers' is something that's Oscar worthy or something. These are movies meant to entertain and to give viewers some good action, humor, and fun which is exactly what 'Venom' delivers, though admittedly not as well as those other films. It's not like the movie is bulletproof or anything as noticeable scenes are missing, likely due to the rating change and the story goes from one subplot to another like a pinball. A fun little note but the first act is almost beat for beat like 1994's 'The Mask' which many will see as cliche and boring, but I found it amusing and it gives us enough detail into Eddie Brock's character, even if you aren't aware of the character's backstory in the comics.
What I love the most about 'Venom' is...well Venom. Tom Hardy provides the voice of the symbiote creature as well as playing Eddie and as such is essentially talking to himself the entire film. It's actually a pretty amazing achievement to have chemistry with yourself but Hardy is great and pulls it off perfectly. The humor is more frequent than I feel was originally intended, but it kept me entertained and I laughed out loud more than once. I also loved Michelle Williams and while I feel she was meant to have much more screen time, I love that she is never in need of rescue nor is she the stereotypical girlfriend character. For a film that gets so much negativity for being too old school this was a good change without feeling forced or PC in its addition.
The biggest negatives of 'Venom' comes down to two things: the villain, Carlton Drake and the noticeable and choppy edits throughout. Carlton Drake is one of the worst comic book movie villains I've ever seen. Riz Ahmed is a great actor and I have nothing against the guy, but he just feels completely miscast here. He's not imposing, he's very cliche dialogue isn't helped by Ahmed's rather soft voice, and once we're at the final fight between him and Eddie it's over rather quick for such a big buildup. The film also has chunks that are noticeably missing throughout, and subplots are either resolved really quickly, or are just left alone for long periods of time killing the pace. Whether these many edits (Hardy was quoted as saying nearly 40 minutes worth) were in order to get the film a PG-13 rating or just for time, I think we're in need of a director's cut badly in this case.
So that's 'Venom' and I am as surprised as you may be to say that I actually enjoyed it. It's far from perfect but 30% on Rotten Tomatoes? 'A Turd in the Wind'? Hardly. Check out 'Venom' for yourselves and just have fun with it. It's a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon with a popcorn in one hand, a drink in another, and a group of friends and just turn your brain off.
3/5
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