Released: October 2018
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Rated PG-13
Run Time: 112 Minutes
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Genre: Action/Horror
Cast:
Tom Hardy: Eddie Brock/Venom
Michelle Williams: Anne Weying
Riz Ahmed: Carlton Drake/Riot
Scott Haze: Security Chief Roland Trace
Reid Scott: Dr. Dan Lewis
Jenny Slate: Dr. Dora Kirth
Have you ever gone into a movie wanted to really tear it apart and hate it with everything you’ve got? There have been several movies like that over the past decade where my expectations were so low that I was willing to go into the film hating it. The funny thing is, is that some of those movies I wanted to hate so badly, are some of my favorite movies. Are they perfect? No. A lot of things tend to affect my expectations, whether it’s news about re-shoots, the film’s MPAA rating, or whoever’s directing it. The opposite can also be true. I could go into a movie wanting to love it and come out hating it. It happens sometimes. My intent is never to tear a movie down because other people are doing it, like it’s the cool thing to do. No. I’m a very forgiving movie buff….almost to a fault. You’re not going to see a lot of movies that rank below a 5/10 on this site, because I try to see at least some positives. I do review the occasional stinker that deserves every ounce of hate that I can muster. So, where do I stand on Sony’s new super-anti-hero/super-villain flick, Venom?
Venom opens as an earthbound crashes somewhere in Asia. This ship was holding several specimens of “symbiotes” to be researched by tech mogul Carlson Drake. He believes that the future of humanity is to bind themselves with these symbiotes in order to survive on other worlds. After a disastrous interview with Mr. Drake by investigative journalist Eddie Brock, Brock is fired and loses his girlfriend in the process. Soon after, one of the scientists at Drake’s lab contacts Brock about the experiments that Drake has been performing on homeless people. After breaking into the labs, Brock is infected by one of these symbiotes named Venom. So…..yeah. It’s an origin story, because we clearly don’t have enough of those. Story-wise, Venom is one of the most generic movies that I have seen this year. It’s not always a bad thing to have something so familiar, and on that ground I enjoyed it, but this is Venom. The story doesn’t take any risks when it comes to character development or with any particular situation. Most people who know about the character of Venom will know that he’s not exactly the hero-type. He’s more of an anti-hero than anything else, aside from being one of the main Spider-Man villains. He’s not a nice guy. I will say this, though: Venom in this film is a much better interpretation of the character than the idiot that we got in Spider-Man 3.
Venom works for one reason and one reason alone: Tom Hardy. Tom Hardy is the perfect fit for Eddie Brock and Venom. He’s got the right kind of flair and talent that really shines through with the character. Seeing Brock interact with Venom is really, really cool and at times, pretty funny. Hardy has the right kind of physical presence that is needed for a role like this. He even provides the voice of Venom, so he’s pretty acting off himself during certain moments. All the other actors that Ruben Fleischer got for this movie are very good actors, and they do what they can with what they’ve got, but what they’ve got is so thin, I’m amazed that they put in the amount of effort that they did. The problem is that most of the film is miscast. Riz Ahmed is a fine actor, but he’s not the right fit for a corporate sleazeball like Drake. Michelle Williams isn’t even the film a whole lot. This is definitely Tom Hary’s show, through and through. The film mostly focuses on him, but when it doesn’t, the film falls apart.
From a visual standpoint, they nailed the look of Venom. He’s appropriately massive with the giant fangs, huge mouth and long tongue. The overall design of the character is amazing. Yeah, it’s CGI, but for a character like this, it needed to be, and they got it right. The symbiotes were really cool to see in their actual form. Even Riot had a somewhat interesting design. This also brings me to the action and the film’s rating. This is a movie that needed to be rated R. I generally don’t harp on movies that are PG-13, especially if they push that rating to an extreme, like The Dark Knight. Venom definitely pushes that rating to it’s limit as you see the character actually bite people’s heads off, but it’s mostly done off-screen. The reason is that Sony wanted to try and tie Venom in with the MCU established by Marvel. Here’s the problem: Not everything needs to be tied to the MCU. The film’s PG-13 rating is a symptom of that mentality. This movie really needed a much sharper edge than it got. Look at movies like Deadpool and Logan. They were very successful superhero movies and both of them were hard R-rated movies, with some pretty graphic violence. That’s what was needed here and what was being pushed for for months by audiences and film-makers. Sony lost their balls when they opted to bring the film down to a PG-13 rating. I’ve never really been a huge fan of Sony’s Marvel-based movies, mostly because Sony’s execs don’t understand the characters they’re putting on the screen or the audiences that want to see movies like Venom. Again, if it wasn’t for the character of Venom, the action in this film would feel extremely generic. I would honestly tell you not to bother, if it wasn’t for Tom Hardy. That being said, some of the action hits pretty fucking hard and people do get eaten by Venom.
The film does throw in a few Easter-eggs here and there. We do get to see a brief glimpse of She-Venom during a small sequence, which was kind of cool. I’m spoiling this for you, because most people would have figured it out anyway: The character of Cletus Kasady does make an appearance and it’s Woody Harrelson in the role, which is perfect. Now, for those who don’t know the character of Kasady, he eventually bonds with a symbiote and becomes Carnage. Now, I tell you that, because in order to really get the character of Carnage right, the movie HAS to be rated R. Kasady is a brutal serial killer and with a symbiote, he’s even more lethal. A sequel to Venom isn’t in doubt, but the film-makers need to throw caution to the wind and not worry about whether the character fits into the MCU or not. He doesn’t need to. I’m honestly hoping that we get an extended cut of Venom for home video, because apparently there’s a lot of stuff that was cut out that could’ve made a difference. Sony: If you’re reading this, grab a fucking pair and give us a real proper Venom film that’s rated R for an R-rated character. So, is Venom a complete waste? Honestly, no. I had a lot of fun with it, despite its glaring flaws, and I will be picking this one up on Blu-Ray. The reaction to this film is clearly split down the middle, but I’m kind of on the side of it just being a fun super-hero movie. So, I think it’s worth watching in theaters at least once.
My Final Recommendation: “We are Venom. We deserve an R-rated movie. Make it happen, or we’ll eat your face!” 7.5/10