Villains are some of the most fascinating
characters to appear in cinema, and with a character like Spider Man having
such great iconic villains; it’d be interesting to see how that character can
interact with a villain like Venom. Unfortunately due to poor decisions making
and despite the fact this character was not done correctly in a film prior to
this, Sony went ahead and made a movie starring Venom with no relation to
Spider Man what so ever. Unsurprisingly Venom’s first official movie comes
across as this odd outdated mess of a movie, but fortunately isn’t a complete
bore as it is somehow fascinating to witness the atrocity on screen.
The
plot of Venom basically results from
Eddie Brock played by Tom Hardy ending up being affected by a symbiote known as
Venom, where he controls his personality and actions to end up causing mayhem
throughout the world. However, one of the most stands out issues for this movie
comes from its first act, which honestly isn’t much of what the actual movie is
about with Venom. The movie takes forever to get to that point, which is common
for a movie that build up to what the audience is expecting for the movie, but
the first act of Venom is one of the
most cliché and unexciting first acts in any recent superhero movie. It goes to
all the clichés of guy down on his luck, dealing with a breakup, filler of the bad
guy being built up and a lot of uninteresting things that we’ve seen dozens of
times in a movie. The first act is not refreshing in the slightest; however
things take a slight turn once Venom actually comes into the picture. Once
Eddie gets hooked with the symbiote, the film gets much more interesting,
however not necessarily better. The dynamic of Eddie Brock and Venom is
enjoyable to watch, it’s more out of the fact of how ridiculous the film is
with many of its insanely over the top moments that don’t quite feel as
intentional as something like Deadpool.
The writing comes across as some of the most try head edgy dialogue in recent
memory and even story structure wise, the film just feels incredibly rushed
with characters barely having much development or motivation for their actions.
Although not structured well, the film is so oddly paced, so terribly written,
that it becomes interesting to watch. You watch the film second guessing what
strange bizarre moment or choice that could be made for a film like this, not a
good film by any mean, but it’s an interesting one to say the least.
Partially what makes Venom oddly fascinating to watch is the performances and odd
dynamic between Eddie and Venom themselves. Tom Hardy is certainly a talented
actor but here, he plays a character that’s really over the top and comes
across as it being utterly ridiculous of him to act like a buffoon with all the
crazy situations Venom has him encounter. Even taking the ridiculousness of
Venom out of it, within the first act, Hardy does this very odd accent that
doesn’t seem fitting for a character like him and seems oddly out of place. As
mentioned earlier, he’s a talented actor, definitely showcasing his skills of
being a professional many times, so there shouldn’t be any fault on him for his
performance not being up to standards as what we’re used to. It is honestly
hard to play a character written so poorly. Venom also doesn’t fare much better
as a character, while he’s the closest thing to a character with an arch, his
motivations for why he does the things he does in the film seem very unclear.
The script doesn’t give him any reason for why he comes to earth or even betrays
his own kind, which makes it very underwritten. But seeing this character say
such ridiculous lines including “Like a Turd in the Wind” does bring forth some
amusement. The rest of the cast have proven to do well in other movies prior
but the script doesn’t give them anything to work with as their characters are
as about as basic as one could get. Riz Ahmed plays the typical businessman
archetype, Michelle Williams plays the basic love interest, and that’s it,
nothing that makes these characters truly stand out. It’s a film filled with
many characters except with none of the personality and development needed to
make it elevate more than the average comic book movie.
From
an aesthetic standpoint, Venom does
succeed somewhat in the visual department but not by a whole lot unfortunately
due to some poor choices made. The film does look relatively okay with some
decent cinematography at many points of the film and Venom himself for a CGI
characters looks aesthetically pleasing to the eyes design wise. When it comes
to the rest of it, it ranges from mediocre to downright bad. A lot of effects
deal with either Tom Hardy’s transformation or the Symbiote traveling around
and it’s all a mess of CGI garbage being thrown on screen. This is especially
apparently in the finale as the final action sequence is one of the most
clustered CGI fights to ever appear in a recent blockbuster movie. To the point
where a Michael Bay Transformers movie
has a more cohesive action scene then what Venom
has to offer. Add in with a terrible generic music score and song choices
and the rest of the acting and script elements that make Venom so laughable,
then you got a film that is by no exaggeration a crap show to behold.
Venom
at the very end of the day comes across as a huge mess of a movie, but one of
those messes that is at least interesting to see. The bad writing, characters
and effect make it fascinating to watch, but it is by no means will be seen as
a good movie. There was potential to make a decent Venom movie, but all of that
was thrown out the window given that Sony just wants to make a quick buck as
soon as possible. It’s an easily skippable movie unless if you want a good
comedy to watch this year. Thankfully, Spider-Man
into the Spider-Verse will be a good pallet cleanser for a mediocre movie
like Venom, as we’ll soon get another
film relating to Spider man with a lot of creativity and doesn’t feel like some
outdated tripe.
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