- Title: Venom
- IMDb: link
Removing Venom out of Spider-Man‘s universe and introducing him on his own as the main character of a horror flick was an odd choice. Originally introduced in the comics as a nemesis for Spider-Man, in recent years the character has evolved into something of an anti-hero given his popularity. It’s that version Sony and director Ruben Fleischer attempted to capture in 2018 film as an alien symbiote from across the stars bonds itself to a loser in need of redemption. Together, they will save the world.
As in the comics, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) an alpha male dipshit who does what he wants regardless of the consequences, although the script does attempt to give him a streak of nobility when hunting down the truth of a story concerning an eccentric billionaire (Riz Ahmed) which costs him his job and his fiancé (Michelle Williams). One of the aliens the billionaire brought from space bonds with Eddie. And our hero is born.
The film’s brighter moments come in the give-and-take between the pair sharing Eddie’s body. Everything outside of that is a bit more problematic as in the inconsistencies with how the symbiotes work. We see plenty of experiments where the bonding fails between host and symbiote, but every time Venom needs to jump to a different host, including using Eddie’s former girlfriend, not a single problem occurs. Turning out crazy billionaire into a host as well creates for a CGI vomit fest of a climax between the pair, although the film rediscovers its humor in the epilogue.
Hardy, mostly acting with himself or to CGI which will be inserted later, is fine for the role. However, Williams is completely wasted here and Ahmed is a bland villain whose transformation into Riot (a less interesting version of Venom) does nothing to help the plot. Deemphasizing those characters with more on Venom learning to coexist, and the natural humor that comes out of those moments, would have played more into the film’s strengths.
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