Poison or Antidote?
Sony films for me are hit and miss, with a little more miss than hit in my opinion. It used to be that they were a product of their time and that there wasn’t much else to compare it to… but things change, and the landscape of superhero cinema is very much included. When all we had were Tobey McGuire dancing and Nicolas Change yelling mixed with a much younger original cast of Avengers, we forgave things, many weird and wonderful things. But has 16 years of “super” competition opened Sony’s mind, or are they still stuck with their awkward dancing emo phase?
The story has been changed from the comics and that I completely understand; Sony don’t produce Spider-man movies anymore and Venom originally was stuck on Peter Parker before attaching itself to Eddie Brock. It’s a weird choice to make a film about a Spiderman villain and not have Spider-man but as I alluded to earlier, Sony don’t usually make wise movie choices. So, as an avid comic fan, you can imagine my confusion and apprehension upon hearing, following the development and then reviewing this film. That being said, the origin wasn’t too far off from the canon and I don’t think it really mattered in the long run in what the movie was trying to do. The story follows journalist Eddie as he loses everything and eventually find a symbiote (venom) and well, an anti-hero does what an anti-hero does!
Is it an amazing story? No. But I won’t spoil the entire thing, but I will tell you some things that did ruin the film for me. First of all, the acting for the most part was pretty terrible aside from Tom Hardy himself. Tom Hardy plays both Venom and Eddie Brock and plays them well and to be honest, my favourite part of this film was his chemistry with himself and his acting with no one else around. Sadly, it seemed like everyone was going through the motions and none more apparent that Michelle Williams. Except for her being a complete Ex Machina, she did not need to be in the film at all and it wouldn’t of difference if she was or wasn’t. Her role could’ve been something not stereotypical and the movie would’ve been better for it. Aside from her, the cookie cutter villain didn’t help either, but I feel like the main reason everyone goes to see this film is not for the “romantic” subplot, but they go for the Venom and boy does it double down on that.
The CGI for venom is everything I wanted. He looks just like how I would’ve wanted and the actions he takes (even in a PG-13/M15+ rating) are perfect for this character and I was pleasantly surprised. The action, for the most part, was pretty easy to follow, not including the finale and the movie benefitted from this. It was brutal and the perfect about of violent for an alien symbiote, I just could help but think how great it would be if there was a little peter parker flying through the air at the same time.
When I try and think about how I would rate this film, I come to an impasse. I don’t think it was amazing (pun intended) and I don’t think it was horrible. It is in the middle somewhere and even more so when I compare It to Sony films, so I think I’ll do just that. Venom is better than Spiderman 3 and Amazing Spider-man 2 but not as good as the rest of the other dancing Spider-men. I think most people should go see it, Tom hardy was actually great in this and commits wholly, the action was fun and if we all go see it… who knows we might get a better sequel?
Score: 2.5/5
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