Venom movie review

Here's what you need to know; after a run in with the dubious Carlton Drake, Journalist Eddie Brock's life has completely fallen apart, but a whistle-blower within Drake's midst has a scoop that can not only get him back in the game but set him on a path to get his life back in order. What Eddie finds however is a bit more than he bargained for; twisted human experiments, aliens, and a voice in his head that hungers for human flesh. Now, as Drake's plot is set in motion, Eddie and his new friend must work together for their mutual best interest, survival, all the while Eddie must learn how to coexist with a psychopathic alien in his head that can, at any moment, take full control and become the murderous monster; Venom.
Would you look at that, Sony finally made that Venom movie they've been on about for years, and it isn't in the MCU, and it has no Spider Man, and it's a PG13, though the BBFC, the British Board of Fart-sniffing Cunts, gave it a 15. My dislike for the BBFC aside, you know what's worse than them, the gaggle of cock gobblers me and my friend were forced to endure the presence of for the entirety of the runtime, they were the worst assortment of people I've ever had to put up with in the cinema, and I'm stunned that they weren't kicked out. They were throwing stuff at people in the front rows, talking and laughing obnoxiously loudly, certainly an effort to get everyone's attention, they were on their phones, at one point one of them screamed for no reason, someone did tell them to shut up eventually which is good because if they hadn't, I'd have probably dragged them all out by their scrotums one by one and force fed them their own teeth, I fucking mean it. What was I talking about, oh yeah, Venom, sorry, got a bit off topic.


Venom's opening few minutes are actually really good, the music is ominous and effective, it sets the scene with very little exposition, and there's some alright symbiote action as one of them escapes and murders a pair of paramedics. I was impressed with Venom right out of the gate, and almost certain that by the end I'd be taking issue with its 32% Rotten Tomatoes score, like that score even means anything. Then we meet Tom Hardy as Eddie, which is where the film seemed to split my little group, as two of us liked him, and the third found him unlikable and annoying, and to be fair, when Michelle Williams is firing off about things he does wrong in his life, she isn't wrong. He's a journalist, he goes around asking difficult questions and bringing truth to the people, and that he does seem to do, he seems to the on the right side of whatever situation he's covering, far from licking the boots of Carlton Drake like his boss tells him to, he asks the uncomfortable questions, he seeks the truth. But while he does seem to be well meaning, when he's introduced, roaming the city on his bike in a leather jacket while a stylishly edited montage of his News show plays over top, it does seem a bit much, he comes across as a bit of a tool. And while we are led to believe that Carlton Drake personally ruined his life, the film doesn't sugar-coat that Eddie isn't entirely innocent, and he pays the price for his mistakes.

The Hyde to Eddie's Jekyll is where things get really good though, because Venom is undeniably the highlight of the film. Venom's dialogue with Eddie is everything I was expecting it to be with Venom's twisted philosophy and sense of humour, and that gives the film some really comedic moments as Venom talks to Eddie and comes out with some darky hilarious lines. Venom, in addition to being funny, has an enjoyable relationship with Eddie, as he starts out all murderous and sinister but gradually befriends Eddie. Though I do think that gradual ark isn't quite gradual enough as Venom goes from deceptive and evil to Eddie's new BFF in just a few scenes, and just in time for the final throw down with Riot, like a lot of things in this film, it feels rushed. Venom also has the issue of taking a while to get to the titular character; the amount of Venom after Eddie gets the Symbiote is perfect, but the film drags its feet in getting to that point, and the slow start doesn't do the film any favours, especially with a runtime under two hours and a rushed ark for its titular character when he actually does show up. Though this problem will undoubtedly be absent in the inevitable sequel because this film got all that origins stuff out of the way, which means we'll get an entire film with Venom rather than about two thirds of one.

Michelle Williams as Anne is a decent enough supporting character, the role she plays in the film is predictable; the tragic lost love that Eddie still loves, while she suppresses her still very alive feelings for him. This isn't as cringy a relationship as it could have been, and by the end of the film I did like the two of them together, even if Eddie doesn't quite get the girl in the end. But the film's antagonists are where the cracks really start opening up. Carlton Drake is our main guy, a scheming corporate guy with nefarious intent and that thinks he's a god, in fact he literally says it in one scene. The film goes out of its way to strip him of any humanity that he could have had, he's cold and unempathetic, even sadistic in some scenes, which is a shame in my opinion because like many a good villain, he thinks he's doing a good thing, and that's an idea that could have been built upon, but instead he's just an insane little man who's evil and must be stopped. But then there's Riot, which is where the film really misses the mark for me. Riot could have been an awesome villain, he plans to use Drake's space program to bring an invasion force to Earth, and it's clear in one scene that he's exploiting Drake to reach that goal, but the relationship between the two could have been better developed. It's not like the film gives that any time anyway, since it's a surprisingly short film at 112 minutes and Riot just kind of shows up in the finale for Venom to fight. Like Drake, he feels wasted, like the film could have done more with him, but didn't, a problem he shares with Venom in some regard.

But as far as issues go, the real problems, the ones that'll break the film for some people, are plot holes. Things are established early in the film, but ignored even before they're established as well as after, things like the Symbiotes only being able to bond with genetic matches, which is conflicted by Riot infecting everyone he touches, and Venom finding three perfect matches in a row, one of which just conveniently happens to be Eddie's ex girlfriend. Or how about this one, Anne gets an email about the evil shit going on at the Life Foundation, an email that Eddie reads instead, at the expense of his job and relationship, but she doesn't believe Eddie about what he finds at the Life Foundation after he gets the Symbiote, or a plot hole towards the end of the film that I won't spoil, all I'll say is that someone should have died but didn't and the film never addresses it, and why were Drake's goons hunting Venom with explosive drones despite surely knowing after six months of testing that they're weak to fire. Anne magically being a match for Venom does go some way to explaining Venom's change of heart towards Eddie, even though to even consider that opens up a whole new can of worms as to how the Symbiotes work, how do they decide their hosts, do they kill their hosts intentionally or is it just what they do, but then how did Eddie and Anne survive the symbiosis when the homeless people Drake was testing with earlier didn't. To tell the truth though, these don't ruin the film for me, I've seen worse plot holes in just the last couple of weeks thanks to The Predator not understanding how Evolution or Autism works, and nothing in Venom compares to that or the retconning of Pacific Rim: Uprising. Don't be confused by the way, me comparing Venom to two films I thoroughly dislike isn't me saying I dislike Venom, because I don't.

One thing I do dislike about Venom is an issue I also had with Black Panther earlier in the year, that being both films having heroes in Black suits and finales that take place in dark environments. In Black Panther, it was T'Challa and Killmonger battling to the death in Wakanda's Vibranium mines while both wearing Black Panther suits, in Venom, it's Venom and Riot battling to the death on Drake's launch pad at night while both being big black and grey monsters. Neither of these films are ruined by this, but it does stick out a bit that in the both films' big finales it's harder than it should be to really tell what's happening, though despite having a smaller budget, the visual effects on Venom and Riot here are actually better looking than the CGI Black Panther suits of Black Panther. This is a bit of a conundrum for Venom however thanks to Venom's design; he's a big, slimy monster with oily, shiny black skin and uncanny movements, even with the best visual effects in the world he's still going to look unnatural because that's just what he looks like. Riot isn't afforded the same cover thanks to his lighter, more textured skin, so weirdly, the more detailed monster in this film is also the more fake looking, while also coming from the Doomsday and Abomination school of being a big, grey, spiky monster that arrives in the finale solely for the hero to fight. On the plus side of Riot though, him forming weapons out of his body is cool to look at, and it's something that'd be interesting to see Venom get his hands on in the sequel, especially with the direction this film seems to be headed in the sequel by teasing Carnage.

To also address the rating, in Britain Venom has a 15 rating for horror, violence and strong threat, whatever strong threat means, but despite being censorious cunts, the BBFC saw no reason to cut or censor the film, making 15 an apparently redundant rating. Ignoring that Venom is a very violent character outside of this film, even ignoring that films like Deadpool and Logan were both successful despite their violence, this film sets Venom up as a very violent character who wants to eat and dismember people, and he does bite off a few heads in the film, bloodlessly of course, which again reminded me of Black Panther and when someone got their throat slit in that film. The film seems unable to commit to any graphic violence or absence of graphic violence, wanting to have its cake and eat it by having Venom ripping off heads, but then swiftly disposing of a shadowy body so as to hide any gore and blood. That lack of committal makes the film's violence feels weak and wishy washy, almost as if the plan was for there to be blood and guts, but it got cut out in editing, with the tin foil hat reasoning being that eventually Sony will discontinue their deal with Marvel and have Spider Man all to themselves again, by which point Venom will be an established franchise with sequels and spin offs that they can then retcon Spider Man into. I don't know if that will happen, but it doesn't change that, now considering the existence of Deadpool, there's no real reason for this film to be PG13, especially since it isn't in the MCU, so, Sony, Venom 2, make the BBFC giving it a 15 make sense.

Pile of bodies... Pile of heads...
Venom's been getting a very bad rap from the critics, but all this is to me is another example of the disconnect between critics and audiences, and since I'm not a critic, just an opinionated twat with a blog, I found myself really enjoying Venom for what it was. It has issues with its first act and plot holes for sure, and while I liked the Venom, Eddie relationship, it did feel rushed. Though not as rushed as Riot and Drake, who are completely wasted antagonists, Riot in particular who is reduced to nothing more than a monster for Venom to fight. The BBFC's rating is also disappointingly redundant, but that isn't enough to kill the film for me, I liked Venom, even as clean as he is in the film, and he really makes it for me. I'd gladly watch Venom a third time and I'd recommend it, it's worth's watching.