This is one hot mess that will enrage Marvel fans and confuse newbies. That’s not to say this reimagining of the Venom origin story doesn’t have its entertaining moments and some good laughs along the way.
Venom first appeared in comics back in 1984 battling Peter Parker’s Spiderman. Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock is a dense loser, but also a determined, crusading investigative San Francisco journalist. Hardy has exchanged his British accent for a mumbling New York one that goes in and out. His “dees, dem and doz” accent gives him the appearance of being mentally slow. Nothing fits together in this mish mash.
The movie begins with a spacecraft crashing on its return to earth releasing an oozing mass of alien life that was intended for further study. This is stuff that makes up Venom, a symbiote who needs a human host to survive on this planet. This should be the stuff of terrifying nightmares, but to get a PG-13 rating, the violence and characters are sanitized leaving a puddle of boring action sequences. Making Venom into an anti-hero with a soft spot for Eddie leaves the audience unsatisfied on every level.
Hardy is teamed with a fine cast, including Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed. Williams is Anne, Eddie’s love who is also a strong, smart equal to her male counterparts. Ahmed is Carlton Drake, the high profile CEO of the pharmaceutical company which is carrying out his secret research into those alien life forms. Eddie is determined to expose his crimes including killing kidnapped homeless people used in experiments with the alien life.
So with all this potential, why does Venom fall so far from the mark? Let’s start with the heavy-handed direction of Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland). The action sequences are labored and clunky. The special effects evoke more primitive times in the genre. Venom’s long, slithery tongue and picket-fence teeth look like they’re right out of the comic book that came out in 1984. The big chase through the streets of San Francisco isn’t anything to write home about. Squealing tires with a florescent glow are old school. Plus the climactic battle scene is so dark and jarring it’s hard to distinguish who we are looking at, let alone who is winning or losing.
When Venom takes up residence inside Eddie’s body there should be dread, yet they seem to become more like roommates. Venom and Eddie are a couple of buddies, only one of them leaves a trail of death and eats people. No big deal! By making Venom into an almost lovable anti-hero instead of a scheming villain with a taste for human brains, the essence of the scary nature of the character is lost.
There are some good lines in the script by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel. Some of the best laughs come when Venom delivers zingers from inside Eddie’s head. These moments evoke some of the dark humor from Deadpool but there’s not much beyond the laugh line.
At times it’s tough watching this cast struggle with the script. Tom Hardy is a remarkably versatile actor, but he sometimes looks like he’s trying to figure out how to deliver his character in front of the camera! Michelle Williams is stuck playing a lawyer and the love interest who dumps Hardy after he chooses to chase a story to expose her boss without thinking of the possible consequences for her.
Pissed, she ditch’s Eddie moving on to a romance with a doctor (Reid Scott) whose only reason to be in the script is to run the MRI showing Venom. Then there’s Riz Ahmed (Nightcrawler). His Carlton Drake is supposed to be the obsessed billionaire determined to meld humans and aliens no matter if they die. Even with the grotesque scenes of carnage inside the laboratory, there isn’t a sensation of foreboding or terror in any of this. Not even when Drake takes revenge on his trusted assistant Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) for betrayal. There’s no reaction that evokes much emotion. It just lays flat. Another waste of fine talent.
The music by Ludwig Göransson is predictably loud and serious with a classical bent trying to make this effort seem more important. Matthew Libatique’s cinematography in this project falls short of his inspired work in his other work including the latest A Star is Born or his work on Black Swan.
If you can endure sitting through the long, and even longer final credits, stay for all the post clips which promise a sequel. Woody Harrelson is even listed in the credits to drum up some interest in another installment.
The sound team electronically manipulates Tom Hardy’s voice to give Venom that gravely, deep voice inside his head. If Venom were talking to Hardy today, after seeing this un-Marvelous film, we think he just might say, “Don’t do this again, pussy.”
Sony Pictures 112 Minutes PG-13
