Spiderslashers-Venom

Yeah I know it’s not really a horror movie but it comes out in October so I’m counting it. Sue me.

I was not looking forward to seeing Venom prior to my initial viewing. I thought the trailers were a mess, I thought the ad campaigns for it looked obnoxious and above all I didn’t like that it was trying to make a movie about Venom without Spider-Man since he’s….DIRECTLY TIED TO HIS ORIGIN? Now after my seeing it I can fully say that from an objective point of view this movie is an absolute train wreck. Its first 30 minutes were edited with a blender, the story moves at a lightning pace with almost no breathing room, there’s barely a serious moment in the entire film, and it flat out feels like it’s missing integral character building scenes.

However

Venom is one of the most entertaining comic book movies I have ever seen.

Yes I’m Serious

Venom tells the story of investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) whose life gets ruined after asking one to many questions to the owner of a bio-engineering corporation, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) who proceeds to ruin his life. Down trodden and heart broken, he soon comes into contact with the Venom symbiote and has a constant back and forth for control until they unite against a common foe and save the world. The plot is extremely basic with very little surprises. One of the things this movie neglects to do, actually is have a proper friendship with Eddie and the symbiote. They show they beings at odds with each other just fine but they never really explore them working together until the last 30 minutes of the film. Really the entire movie fells like it was missing around 45 minutes of footage (which by the way, it is) and while seeing them interact in the movie IS entertaining, it ultimately feels rushed. The pacing is also way too quick for its own good, you never really get a chance to know anyone outside of Eddie. All the side characters and even the main antagonist just feel cookie cutter and basic without any real for lack of a better word…CHARACTER. That isn’t to say that this movie isn’t fun to watch because HOO BOY, there are so many scenes in this movie that had me trying not to burst out laughing in the theater.

Whether intentional or not, Venom has some of the funniest scenes I have seen in a comic book movie in a long, LONG time. Without getting too much into spoilers there is a kiss that happens in this movie that is so goofy, cheesy, and outright STUPID that it’s hysterical. A lot of the dialogue Venom himself has is also great and whenever he and Eddie argue it’s always funny and I have to give Tom Hardy some credit, at times he can deliver a great comedic performance though I did think he came off as a bit rambley at times. The insane pace is even fun to watch because it constantly cuts to scene after scene and it just feels like information overload. Even the ending fight scene was a mess, it was so hard to actually keep up with what was happening because of all the camera angles and the fast cg animation, though there were some great slow motion shots of the symbiotes that honestly looked gorgeous, and I wish they did more of that because the animation on Venom DOES look really good at times. He has a lot of detail and he’s very expressive, even if he’s not exactly the most polished looking cg model, he doesn’t really move naturally and doesn’t have the finesse of a Disney cg character but for what it’s worth he looks great.

All in all I was thoroughly entertained by Venom. Sure it’s a mess and if you REALLY want to look at it, it’s a terrible movie and a messy adaption of the character. But if you just want a movie that will keep you entertained, I HIGHLY recommend it.

And before I forget.

The first after credits scene is super dumb, by the way. Very funny, but super dumb. The second one is [SPOILER] just a sneak peak for Enter the Spider-Verse. It has NOTHING to do with Venom (the character) and has zero connection to the movie you just watched, but it was still cool to see.