Set in San Francisco we see Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a hard-nosed journalist who is trying to dig up dirt on billionaire Carlton (a sadly rather dull Riz Ahmed) who Brock believes is behind a shady organization.
It’s hard to have a Venom movie without featuring Spiderman and seeing reviews for this particular feature set my bar rather low in terms of expectations. But when I came out of the cinema I found myself torn, a portion of me rather hated the movie yet the majority found it enjoyable.
Venom is a film that when asked by friends what you thought about it you’d downplay your reaction, but inside you rather enjoyed it. It definitely will find itself a cult status, it has an eerie charm to it and Tom Hardy is rather a joy to watch as Eddie Brock becomes the host for an alien symbiote.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) this film similar to Zombieland has a nice horror and comedy element. Venom isn’t as sinister as he appears and his interaction with Eddie (Tom Hardy) is quite an interesting relationship.
A symbiote has to fully adapt to its human’s metabolism and structure in order to survive and thus a bond is formed between the two as Eddie takes on powers beyond his wildest dreams.
Eddie has an energy, a thriving and progressively forward attitude. Hardy is almost typecast as the generic British tough guy but here ever so slightly, he is able to relax somewhat and embrace a crazier and more intriguing character. It’s great to see such a serious actor let loose a bit and that is certainly a reason why Venom appealed to me.
I loved the CG scenes (if not albeit consistent) and some of the fight scenes were very tasty indeed. The action set pieces are cut and paste (nothing to brag about) but it’s how Eddie interacts with Venom during these scenes that make them worth watching.
I’m still trying to figure out some terrible plot holes, continuity issues in scenes and how numerous small propeller drones can randomly make SUV’s explode simply by crashing into them but yeah, it’s Hollywood. Anything can happen, right?
The supporting cast does their job of just being around with no particular special mentions of any note as they’re really not given much to do. This, after all, is the Tom Hardy show and there really isn’t room for character or relationship development between anyone else other than Venom and Eddie (Hardy) himself.
Worth seeing for sure but don’t get too excited it’s not that great but it’s really not that bad either!
Summary
God, I wish this movie was R-Rated. Held back by its rating, a rather under-developed script and run of the mill scenes Venom could have been so much more. Hopefully, an inevitable sequel will expand on what could be something rather promising with the right people at the helm.
