Sony Pictures' Venom Review

Out of the slumbers of the void and back into the light once more, October has arrived and a certain popular Marvel Character is being brought back into theaters with his own, solo origin comic book action thriller film.  That character is the iconic anti-hero and nemesis of Spider-Man called Venom, with Rubin Fleischer as the director as well as Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, Kelly Marcel, and Will Beall as the writers for this new take on Eddie Brock and his encounter with the alien goo known as Symbiotes.  An interesting comic book factoid on the character himself, Venom was created by Todd McFarlane with David Micheline and sold to Marvel for use in the Spider-Man universe, who would serve as an inspiration to another popular anti-hero, Spawn.  With the numerous production drama reports, Sony Pictures insistence on making their own cinematic universe without Spider-Man but with his supporting characters/villains/worlds, and the fans demanding for the character to be done right, the enthusiasm is certainly there to make it a hit upon its release.  But with the recent critical evisceration yet mixed to positive response from viewers in general, the big question that lingers in everyone’s mind even supporters, how did this even get made in the first place?  Let’s discuss this with our own conscience and lay out the story to untangle our confused minds.

We follow an unlucky but tenacious reporter named Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), who just lost his job at a TV station due to asking a mysterious yet confident CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) of the Life Foundation regarding the secret projects going on with the recently discovered meteor that crashed in Malaysia and houses the infectious alien entity known as the Symbiotes.  6 months later, Brock is approached by a scientist known as Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) about the experiments going on with the Symbiotes to create hybrids from the homeless people, for the next step in evolution.  He investigates the matter and in doing so during a break in of the Life Foundation’s facility, the Symbiote latches onto him as he escapes from the place with evidence of the illegal activities taking place in their San Francisco HQ.  Brock discovers that the alien has done more than just absorb itself into him.

Brock is bonded psychically to the creature referring itself as Venom (voiced by Tom Hardy), that takes pleasure in causing pain and killing people as well as feasting on their corpse, particularly the head.  This gets the attention of not only Drake and his militia, but also his ex-girlfriend Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) trying to reconnect with him and get the help he needs.   However, Venom has other plans for Brock that involves getting him a ride off Earth while another Symbiote travels to America for that same purpose.  As they get closer to their goals, they become stronger and form bonds to their hosts.  What transpires is a story of conspiracies and the duality of man and monster to become the iconic yet terrifying villain/anti-hero, Venom.

What was written before the review revisions after seeing the film, was more exciting than what happens in the film as the story has one of the dullest first acts reminiscent of the early days of comic book films that don’t get to the good stuff until the film is almost over.  It takes about an hour before we see Venom in the film as well as the awkward, weird direction going on with the way the characters act as well as the unnatural, cringe inducing dialogue at play here.  Also, how does it take a certain Symbiote, Riot half a year to get from Malaysia to San Francisco via Airplane? Never explained and just an annoying plot hole that represents the lack of foresight and multiple inputs put into this hacked up script.  It also doesn’t help that most of the characters are very much one note and contribute very little to the plot or the character of Eddie Brock besides plot conveniences or contrivances.  To elaborate, we take so much time having to establish the symbiotes as well as making sure Eddie Brock is likable, that the film barely has time to even get to the one aspect of the story that was compelling and done well in this snooze fest of a bland corporate thriller story, despite very little time spent on it.

It would be the odd yet fascinatingly funny dynamic between Brock and Venom providing most of the only real quality that the film can call its own, despite feeling like an accident instead of intentional.  They are truly funny and the conflict that resides between them about hurting others and eating them made for some interesting character moments that are never truly developed.  That’s because we must focus on generic evil genius plot no. 42 for most of the film as the villain Drake feels like a cartoon villain with his insanely broad plot for world domination as well as non-characters that add nothing to the plot at all especially regarding the female love interest.  The story when looked at closely, is strangely lazy and reeks of the broadest possible way to make this character exist without crucial elements of other characters and setups, for this film to exist at all.  There is only one final aspect of the story to discuss and that would be what they are trying to setup in the future.

You can clearly tell there is a sense of desperation and yet clear passionless drive to make their own universe of films evident by the lame yet very promisingly goofy post credit scene to tie it in.  There is only one scene, with an extended preview action scene for another promising film but without going into details, it has the goofiest wig and bonkers acting seen thus far in the film.  The story has logical problems, changes in motivations that make no sense (Venom changes his mind about his plans for a desperate attempt at an arc? Really?), characters acting moronic and dumb for some unintentional hilarity, and it has a climax that is CGI blobby mess that lacks any sense of tension or threat to the hero as well as being brief and anti-climactic.  In other words, it becomes more enjoyable to laugh and admire its mistakes rather than the very little successes it pulls off.

Let’s get to the cast with the focus mainly on Tom Hardy and the rest of the cast explored together as they contribute very little to the story.  Tom Hardy is a very versatile actor and performer, one of the few talented actors to really inhabit and transform himself into the role.  He is clearly the one person who not only cares in his completely zany performances but tries to make the character his own, despite how bonkers he gets with overacting his mannerisms and dealing with the CGI transformations that would seriously look goofy and unintentionally funny without it.  It doesn’t help that he goes for an awkward Bronx/Brooklyn accent that just comes across as comical and hard to take seriously as someone who is supposed to be a transplant from New York City.  However, the conundrum of this performance is that he truly is the one character we at least latch on to and empathize with out of the whole cast of characters.

When he gets attached to Venom, the film comes to life and shows its potential, despite how he only shows up in the 2^nd/last act of the story.  The character is surprisingly goofy for being a murderous alien creature, but he is portrayed that way in the comic books of today.  Venom is truly a fun opposite for Hardy’s Brock to act from, especially in the second half where he psychically communicates this needs and desires to him in the most auspiciously funny ways.  It is surprising how humorous the character comes across, especially when we learn of his reason to stay on Earth that not only feels corny as hell but makes the character even harder to take seriously or find menacing, made clearer by the 180 degree turn with his motivations for a lazy attempt at an arc.  Both Brock and Venom played by Tom Hardy is zany, quirky, and insane with his performances but man, it makes for some misguided yet entertaining hilarity throughout the film.

The rest of the cast are very much afterthoughts or just plot devices to get our characters from point A to B.  Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake is a typical insane yet assertive genius that would make any employee question why they are working for a madman in the first place (that is seriously what happens in one scene).  Michelle Williams as Anne Weying is just a bland, generic MJ style girlfriend for Brock that adds very little to the plot and her romance with him is very awkward and lacks any believable chemistry between them.  Jenny Slate as Dora Skirth is just your typical scientist with a moral/guilty conscience to get our “hero” to the next story beat and upon doing so, is tossed right out of the story unceremoniously.  There are also a few bit players in odd roles as well as some fan service name calls (Jamison is named as a survivor of the shuttle crash, like in the comics and animated series) but they barely matter in the main story overall.  As stated before, there is not much for the supporting cast to provide for the story other than plot conveniences or contrivances to move the plot along.

Now, we get to the technical aspects and boy does this film feel oddly constructed in this area, starting with the cinematography/editing for the film.  This was shot and visually crafted by Matthew Libatique (funny info, also a cinematographer/DP for the recently released musical drama A Star Is Born) and it is kind of bland and generic in its modern setting as well as downplaying the iconography of San Francisco surprisingly.   However, the editors Maryann Brandon and Alan Baumgarten have literally created one of the most awkwardly paced and disjointed film edits yet, with scenes that go nowhere and the motorbike/car chase going on way too long to be intense or engaging to sit through.  They also let comedic moments go on for too long for the punchline to settle into the audience, creating awkward humor rather than being naturally funny.  This problem pertains to the action set pieces as well, especially the very little we get in this film shockingly enough but the sluggish first act makes Venom’s appearance after the hour mark a breath of fresh air despite how crazed and ultimately anti-climactic it ends up being by the climax.

So, the action set pieces in this film are very sparse but also poorly handled and suffer from the major edits made to make it suitable for young kids and teenagers.  There are really only 4 major action beats with a few odd sparks of it, mainly from Riot, the Symbiote baddie of the film.  The decent ones out of the bunch are the apartment throwdown and Lobby faceoff with SWAT as those provide enough impact and power to really show how much Venom is a force to be reckoned with, even without showing his insatiable taste for human heads.  The terrible ones are ironically the advertised ones being the car/motorbike chase (too long and monotonous,  despite being cartoonishly strange to watch) and the last battle between Venom and Riot (absolutely CGI puke infested mess that is mercifully short but ends up being an anti-climatic punch up) are prime examples of set pieces that rely way too much on CGI and provide the opposite of entertaining and energetically cool to watch.  Funny enough, all these set pieces occur in the second half of the film and that is a lot of runtime to sit through before you get to the good stuff you paid to see.

It might be strange, and yet the film already is but let’s mention the costume/wardrobe design for Venom.  It was pointed out that Riz Ahmed goes from being businesslike in appearance to slack wearing comfort clothes that are shown unzip as the film progresses (the only meaningful character development and arc given to generic bad guy # 28).  As for Venom, he looks fine despite not resembling anything like the comic version, mainly from not being tied into Spider-Man at all.  As for most of the clothes for the other actors, not much to discuss as they are mainly modern-day wear and are strangely business world type wear, creating a uniform look that lacks any distinctive characteristics further adding to the lack of remarkable visual identity to any of the characters outside of the random minor detail.

Let’s finally get to the last aspect of the film before we wrap this up, focusing on sound design in the uses of it throughout the film as well as the score/soundtrack itself as it serves an interesting point to add to the overall opinion on this film.  All the sound effects sound weighty enough to give the good action beats some weight to them as well as providing some creepy moments that veer closely to a horror film.  As for the score, it was composed by Ludwig Göransson(who recently scored Marvel’s Black Panther), but unlike that film’s unique and defined musical identity, this one lacks that creative passion by just relying on the typical epic sounds found in most typical comic book films.  And finally, a special mention to the oddly stylistically dated rap songs that are just as mesmerizingly awful in quality as the film itself, with the theme song done by Eminem that feels like the rap equivalent of edgy, dark rock emo songs akin to the similarly shaped soundtrack for another Marvel film back in the 2000’s Daredevil.  It is not a remarkable component of the film to discuss other than the weirdly crafted rap songs for this film that add to the backwards mentality of the existence of this type of comic book film today.

That lies at the heart of why this film is fascinating and grabbing people’s attention in all the wrong ways, as Venom is charmingly a byproduct of the cynical studio production line of comic book films made by people with no love or respect for the source material or character and just throwing darts drunkenly at a board full of moronic ideas and seeing what sticks to it.  This is not a quality film but a misguided and strangely constructed mess of a film that has characters acting illogical for plot conveniences as well as the story lacking any sense of urgency until Venom decides to show up about halfway through the film.  The visual look of the film is shockingly dated and bland with neither the cinematography or action set pieces really defining how this film is different from other Marvel films today or even comic book films back in the 1990’s.  That is not all, we have one of the most insane and board performances from Tom Hardy that truly gives it his all and comes across as the only one that is trying to have fun with this material.  Venom is the epitome of what comic book fans and film-goers had to put up with for decades and a reminder of how this genre has truly evolved beyond it for the better.

Score ** out of *****

Sony Pictures’ Venom is a uniquely bad “guilty pleasure” throwback film from an era of comic book films that have evolved the genre formula and expectations for the better.  Tom Hardy performances as Brock and Venom are the main and only genuine yet accidently done parts of the film that work.  It’s just a shame the film around that character is dull, lacks any sense of agency to the story, and is filled with bland, one note characters that exist for the plot and not to add the world or Eddie Brock as a character, especially if this is supposed to jumpstart a cinematic universe of Spidey’s supporting cast and villains.   The art direction throughout is very cookie cutter bland and lacks any sense of visual character to define it from the rest of the comic book films out there.  The action set pieces are too few and far apart from each other to keep the story from maintain any kind of excitement or engagement for long, especially when it lacks the violent grit and gory intention, only to be neutered by studio mandate.  Is it poorly made and misguided? Yes.  Is it fun to watch it fail on so many levels? It is.  In that context, it becomes unironically funny to watch this film with a bunch of pals, drunk enough to see it, and enjoy the oddities of this film and how it can exist in today’s world of comic book films that truly respect, honor, and spiritually adapt them to work on the big screen.  The exact opposite of what this film does but there is a clear audience and love for this film but probably not in the way Sony Pictures would have wanted.