Ho, boy! What have we gotten ourselves into? With the success of R-Rated, self-referential blood fests like Deadpool and Kick-Ass, it made sense that everyone’s favorite Marvel anti-hero would get the same treatment one day.
Audiences love violence and cursing—something only the funniest/darkest comic characters are allowed to do. Venom could easily be one of these characters. That’s why everyone was ecstatic to hear a horror film revolving around the character, starring fan-favorite Tom Hardy, was happening. Then, sigh…we remembered Sony.
Sony is known for sticking their noses into their films, derailing them and focusing only on the money instead of the product. This was the case with every Spider-Man film they helmed since Spider-Man 3 (which also had Venom in it). Venom is a character who relies on his more heroic counterpart for origin, character development and powers. Instead, with Spider-Man tied up with Marvel/Disney, the three credited screenwriters had to come up with a way to make Venom less spider-like.
It works, I guess, by focusing on the alien symbiote that crashes to Earth. That’s all fine and dandy. What doesn’t work is everything along the way, such as Riz Ahmed’s Carlton Duke, who is a headache of a villain that is never believable, dangerous or as smart as he thinks he is. He’s exposition heavy (you’re going to hear that word A LOT), arrogant and, as good of an actor as I think Ahmed normally is, he fails here.
Speaking of acting, let’s talk Tom Hardy. I don’t know what to make of him here, and I’m sure that is what most people will be saying. He’s either crafting the best work of his career or the worst, and it’s pretty amazing, all things considered. He plays Eddie Brock as he should: damaged and unrelenting. His accent is great, his facial expressions (always a treat) are fantastic and he is relatively funny and easy to root for.
It just becomes hard to tell if he’s trying his best to make his material work, thus putting on a great show, or he realizes how awful his script is, thus not caring about his performance and hamming it up. This theory becomes clear whenever he is on screen with Michelle Williams. They have less than zero chemistry together, and I forgot she was a character until I looked up the cast for character names.
The most important aspect of this film is Venom himself. I’ll be positive: he’s awesome! He looks cool, he acts cool and his powers are cool. Everything Venom should be. However, this is when the R-Rating should have come into play. This character is violent. He eats heads and body parts, preying on fear to power himself. Sure, he does that here, but it cuts away before you see anything. There is no blood in sight. Yes, horror can leave the violence for the people’s imagination, but when the film is billed as a horror-superhero flick, there needs to be something. It could have been exaggerated, much like Venom’s voice. Over the top violence works, as proven by Deadpool. It could have been horrific and tied in with the horror motif. However, it did none of this.
Venom is the definition of a missed opportunity. Everything is just there, put on screen, for the sake of money and not to tell a comic book story for one of comic’s most beloved characters. It isn’t a horror movie because it doesn’t deliver on the promise of that premise. It isn’t an anti-hero film because Venom himself is pretty much just a hero who likes to kill. It isn’t a love story, a sci-fi thriller, a new take on something old, exciting or fun. It’s just there.
Aside from Hardy’s conflicting and downright oddly entertaining performance, Venom isn’t worth the price of admission. It’s just there, much like most of what Sony has put out in regard to the Spider-Man mythos. Do yourself and fans of comics a favor, Sony. Sell your damn rights to Disney, and end our headache, because you have failed again, and we’re sick of it.
Rating: 1/10 (Because of Hardy)
