Even If Marvel Is Your Thing, 'Venom' Lacks The Wow Factor
Starring Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate, Melora Walters and Woody Harrelson
Rated PG-13
Action, Sci-fi
Run time: 1 hr, 52 min
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
In theaters October 5, 2018
This film came out right after star Tom Hardy mentioned that his favorite forty minutes of the movie were cut out, so to be honest, expectations weren’t super high. And that turned out to work in Venom’s favor. Because to be frank, this movie isn’t great, especially on the heels of superhero flicks like Infinity War and Ant-Man and the Wasp, but it has its merits.
In this one (which is Sony-Marvel, not Disney-Marvel), Eddie Brock (Hardy) gets in over his head trying to investigate the business dealings - and the shifty founder (Riz Ahmed) - of the Life Foundation with irons in many fires, some of which seem to not be on the up-and-up. He has to seek aid from his love Anne (Michelle Williams) after things seem to take a turn for the worst and he gets wrapped up in the mysteries of this company, and their ‘symbiotes’ - especially one named Venom.
The writing for this one isn’t fantastic, and a lot of it sounds like straight up line reading, but the interaction between Eddie Brock and his ‘parasite’ Venom (also Hardy) turns out to be the highlight by far. One definite pro is the pacing of Venom. It wasn’t until the final action sequence that every superhero movie has that I actually looked at the time and I was actually shocked that the end was near. That being said, the plot is fine enough, but can leave the audience with a few questions.
At one point during this movie, I asked, “He’s supposed to be against Spider-Man, right? Then why is he in San Francisco and they seemingly wrote off the idea of him returning to New York?” I don’t know if it’s because Spider-Man is now a part of the Disney owned Avengers, but it is really hard to imagine a world in which the two characters co-exist, let alone go against one another. I guess we’ll have to wait and see, because everyone knows that if there’s one superhero movie, it will almost assuredly get a sequel.