A few weeks ago, when I took a look at the recent video game adaptation of Spider-Man, I mentioned how the interactivity and greater potential for player retention that video games offer make the medium of games ideal for loving adaptations of popular IP’s, especially superheroes. In spite of the veritable sea of licensed garbage, I stand by what I said about that potential, for while there are numerous good superhero movies, there are easily just as many bad ones, and the worst of them seem to suffer from contrasting symptoms: too many new characters and story elements, not enough time. Venom’s status a case in point should come as no surprise, given the rewrites, cut footage, and studio-induced production problems leading up to its release, but what’s most frustrating about the movie’s failing is how entertaining the people involved managed to be in spite of all of it. On the bright side, the end result did make for an ironically amusing viewing experience.
Set up as a tangential entry in the MCU sub-series of Spider-Man films, Venom tells the story of Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), a down-on-his-luck investigative journalist whose life takes a nosedive after conducting an unauthorized interview with Life Foundation CEO and inventor Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). The transgression gets both Eddie and his lawyer girlfriend Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) fired, after which she promptly leaves him. To make matters worse, public opinion on the fallen journalist is at an all-time low as Drake is left to perform sinister human experiments involving mysterious alien symbiotes. One such symbiote breaks loose and fuses with Eddie after he agrees to aid a conscientious scientist (Jenny Slate) in undermining Drake’s twisted attempts at “evolving” humanity, and while the creature renders him weak with hunger, it also grants him superhuman strength, endurance, and shape-shifting powers. In time, the symbiote reveals itself to be alive, and that it has a connection to his mind and body that drives it to protect and aid Eddie in his endeavors. Can Eddie hope to cooperate with this sinister, self-serving alien and expose Drake’s crimes? Or is he doomed to die in the shame he was cast into?
The character of Eddie Brock/Venom occupies a rather unique space in Spider-Man’s rogues’ gallery, in that he has been both a villain to the web-slinger and an antihero in his own stories. What’s baffling about this film’s marketing, however, is that Sony promoted it as a depiction of Venom as the former when Venom’s whole villainous ethos revolves around his connection to Spider-Man, who is contractually absent from this particular movie. That’s not to say a more heroic Venom movie couldn’t work- in fact, Tom Hardy’s dual performance as Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote is undoubtedly the film’s strongest aspect. Tom Hardy’s work in Mad Max: Fury Road already proved his mastery at playing broken, cynical characters, but what stands out about Eddie is his partnership and double-act chemistry with the symbiote, and it says something that the banter and partnership works as well as it does in spite of one half of the duo being a disembodied voice. When Hardy is given the spotlight, he delivers some legitimately funny and entertaining moments, and this could have made for a decent movie starring Marvel’s “lethal protector”. Unfortunately, while Venom is in top form (possibly more than he’s ever been in film), everything surrounding the character is a cluttered, inept, and unfocused mess.
Before you worry about the plot spoiled by my introductory premise, you’ll be happy to know that the entirety of Eddie’s fall from grace occurs within the first ten minutes of the film, and the plot continues with this impossibly erratic pace until slowing to a crawl in order to “build up” to his fusion with the symbiote. When Hardy isn’t around to entertain, we’re left with a romantic subplot that falls flat due to the rushed introduction and breakup of Eddie and Anne and a comically executed D-list villain in Carlton Drake. Riz Ahmed is wasted on the hacknyed writing, and it boggles the mind how an executive as obviously corrupt and hammy as Drake hasn’t been caught ten times over. The film wants so badly for Drake to be intimidating, but the result of everything surrounding him just ends up being unintentionally hysterical. Adding to the ironic humor is the film’s action scenes, all of which are erratically shot like the director was hyped on caffeine and thus impossible to follow. All of the film’s worst aspects all send the same message: studio mandates and a lack of focus killed the end result.
All in all, I’m not sure how to sum up Venom due to how much I laughed at the end of it all. If you came to see a good Tom Hardy performance and can turn off your brain to the clichéd, meandering plot, I actually recommend seeing Venom. Those who can’t laugh at a bad movie, though, will just end up tossing popcorn at the screen. Take it or leave it.
Rich Reviews 