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| photo courtesy of pastemagazine.com |
Venom
marks Sony’s latest attempt to launch their own shared comic book universe a la
the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and boy is it odd. The movie stars Tom Hardy as
Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who gets on the wrong side of a
powerful, shady businessman named Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). In the course of
his investigation, Brock encounters one of Drake’s specimens, an alien symbiote
called Venom. Having bonded with the symbiote, Brock finds himself gifted with
strange new power… and saddled with a strange new personality in his head.
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| photo courtesy of gq.com |
In lieu of a second
post-credits scene, Venom treats the
audience to a sneak peek (several minutes’ worth) of their next superhero film,
the animated Spider-Man: Into the
Spider-Verse. Now, Venom
certainly has its moments, but here’s the rub: the short sneak peek of Into the Spider-Verse is far more
interesting, vibrant, unique, funny, exciting, compelling, you name it… than
the entirety of Venom.
In fairness to Venom, Into the Spider-Verse looks pretty great to begin with, so it’s not
exactly an easy win. And Venom isn’t a
total write-off, either. If there’s one thing to praise, it’s the movie’s
bizarre, often unhinged sense of humor. The interplay between Brock and the
symbiote feels surprisingly fresh, and for many audience members, it’ll be enough
reason to stay invested.
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| photo courtesy of slashfilm.com |
If you’re not into that
unusual dynamic, however, you probably won’t find much else to get excited
about in Venom. Apart from its humor
(and, I suppose, the initial novelty of meeting the titular character for the
first time) Venom is as generic and
unmotivated as superhero movies get. Character development, narrative, and
action sequences are all slapdash at best and cringe-y at worst; the script rockets through plot
point after plot point without giving any attention to Brock, Venom, or meaningful
stakes. Needless to say, the female love interest (Michelle Williams) is
underwritten, disposable. At one point, when she voices her desire to
contribute, Venom literally just yells at her, “Not now!” We know, Venom, we
know.
Venom
doesn’t excel at suspense, either. Throughout most of the story, the movie’s efforts
at tension get thwarted by familiar plot points and leaps in logic. The bad guy’s
top-secret, highly secure research facility, for instance, apparently doesn’t
have security cameras. Then, when it comes to the action climax, Venom disappoints there, too; it arrives
unceremoniously and quickly turns into a shiftless, choppy CGI mess.
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| photo courtesy of youtube.com |
The question for many
viewers will be: Is Venom so bad that
it’s actually good, like Sharknado or
The Meg? Or is it just plain bad,
like The Nun or The Happytime Murders? I think some viewers will like Venom, but they’ll like it for the parts
that work (the surprisingly effective Brock-Venom banter), not the parts (you
know, the entire plot) that don’t work. Simply put, those parts aren’t interesting
enough to be worth your while.
Venom is rated PG-13.
TRAILER
Watch the trailer here.
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| photo courtesy of cinemablend.com |
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