Polarizing isn’t a word typically used to describe modern movies, either Marvel adjacent or in the MCU proper. Sony Pictures, Venom film, might be the first. To sit in the theater watching the Tom Hardy led story of one of the Spider-verse’s most popular gray area villains is to watch a movie where no two people have the same interpretation of the humor and action on screen. Venom has that one quality most cult classic films share, it’s misunderstood.
Tom Hardy is investigative reporter Eddie Brock in a film that has a similar tone to Dolph Lundgren’s Punisher or even Blade. Brock investigates the sinister machinations of a company called The Life Foundation. Think of them as Space-X if Elon Musk experimented on San Francisco’s homeless population. Eddie Brock’s investigation ends up getting him exposed to an oozing creature that turns out to be his extraterrestrial soulmate. This copilot Eddie Brock gets imbues him with enhanced strength and the ability to heal him from severe injuries. It’s the psychological play between Brock and this alien symbiote that’s the film’s most compelling dialogue, especially Venom’s weird need to fix Eddie’s love life.
Tom Hardy and really everyone in the cast doesn’t phone anything in here. Especially Hardy in his dual roles as the voice in his own head. They’re just saddled with a script that suffers from a bit of stiff dialogue and a vast amount of plot holes. Even though Venom is very much an origin story it skips over answers its entire near two-hour run time is spent establishing the science to. We’ll never get to know exactly what makes Eddie specifically bond with Venom that none of the other humans could do. These missed payoffs are either minor annoyances or thorns in the sides of fanboys, depending on how you like your ridiculous in nature comic book movies.
Venom at its core is a tale of two halves. There’s so much time spent in the first and second acts breaking Eddie down in an effort to make him sympathetic. His job, his personal life, and his reputation are all burned to the ground in a ham-fisted way. It’s once he gets the Venom symbiote that the movie literally becomes any fun, even if the laughs aren’t always intentional.
This horror-humor genre film suffers what MCU movies falter, an underdeveloped villain. Riz Ahmed delivers a fine performance as Carlton Drake, head of the Life Foundation. The character’s mission to Wall-E everyone from the Earth into outer space is never given any real legs. He doesn’t even come off as maniacal, simply someone who was looking for space ooze.
Director Ruben Fleischer helmed a film that suffers from predictable scripting but manages to have its own moments of gold. Venom’s problem is not that it veered away from its Spider-Man related origins, but that it didn’t risk enough. It’s best parts were the unintentionally laughs because they gave more insight to the symbiote as a character learning about its host. It’s also why the films final monologue by Tom Hardy trying to explain the difference between good and evil to the symbiote is a good moment in film. The way this film manages to isolate and focus on Eddie Brock/Venom is a welcome change from the typical Spider-Man antagonist comic fans know. It’s definitely worth a look even if it’s only once.
Note: Stay for at least the mid-credits sequence which sets up a direction for the possible sequel.
Score:
[IMAX/3D, Full Price Standard, MATINEE, Home Video, Streaming, Cable, Skip it]
