Movie Review - Venom

MegaSoulhero Venom is a movie about the popular Spider-Man villain. He first appeared in Spider-Man 3 which wasn’t a good movie and he was completely wasted in that. I was excited for this movie since I really like the character. At the same time, I was nervous because I didn’t know how a Venom movie could work without Spider-Man. Personally, I think it could’ve worked. If it was done right. Problem is it wasn’t done right in this movie because it is such a mess.

It’s about an unlikeable character named Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, who gets infected with a symbiote and becomes Venom. And yes, I absolutely can’t stand Tom Hardy’s character in this movie. He’s such a jerk. However, Tom Hardy himself does do a pretty good acting job here. There are some positive things I will say about the film. The moments when Eddie is talking to Venom when he’s hearing Venom’s voice inside his head are very well done. Because of Tom’s excellent performance, it actually looks like he’s hearing something inside his head. It’s enjoyable to watch him going through life while hearing something that no one else can hear. Which is why I really enjoy Stranger Than Fiction. I also thought there was one pretty great action scene. There’s a car chase scene with Eddie riding a motorcycle and that entire scene is very well shot and looks beautiful. Unfortunately, the movie has quite a lot of problems. Let me start with the biggest one. Tonal inconsistencies. It has no idea what kind of movie it wants to be. Is it trying to be a dark and serious film or is it trying to be a comedy? There are quite a lot of jokes. There are moments when it’s obvious that they’re trying to make us laugh, then there are moments when it gets so stupid that you can’t tell if it’s supposed to be intentionally funny or not. I felt like there were moments that were trying to be serious, but they actually made the audience in my theater laugh even though it probably wasn’t trying to do that. Although, there was one joke that was legitimately funny that involves an elevator. Venom himself spends most of the movie cracking jokes and it kind of makes him seem less intimidating.

Eddie Brock’s ex-girlfriend in the film doesn’t really get to do much. She does help out in a few scenes, but she doesn’t add a whole lot to the film. I also find it weird that Eddie makes one mistake that ultimately causes her to break up with him. Up until that point, they looked like a pretty nice couple that didn’t have any problems with their relationship. The movie just needed to have them break up for the sake of the plot. They cut out quite a lot from this movie and it really shows. I don’t exactly know what they cut out or where they cut out scenes, but it often feels like some things are missing. Like the little girl who got infected by a symbiote and passing it on to the villain. We don’t see what happened to the little girl after that and that scene comes out of nowhere. A lot of people were disappointed that the movie didn’t get an R rating. Honestly, I really think they should have made this an R rated movie. There are some scenes that don’t feel as intense or terrifying as they should be because they can’t get too violent. Which is disappointing. And then there’s one of the WORST final battles I’ve seen in any comic book movie! It’s just a bunch of CGI crap thrown around and it doesn’t look appealing to look at. The visual effects are honestly not good. I literally laughed during the credits when it had a long list of people who worked on the visual effects. If they had that many people doing this, why did those visuals turn out so bad?

Venom is quite a mess. However, it’s not entirely unwatchable. There are some pretty enjoyable moments and you might find it some of the dumb moments to be pretty entertaining. But if you’re looking for a smart, competently made comic book movie, this ain’t it. That clip that they showed from Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse after the credits was better than this entire film. I am so excited for that movie.

Score: 4/10

Comments

A mess of a film, yes. - iliekpiez

Did you see the first trailer for the Aladdin remake? If so, what did you think of it? - nicolasb5194

Meh - MegaSoulhero

I recently watched it and it was pretty meh. It was a bit of a guilty pleasure to be fair. I liked the dark tone to it. Thank goodness Disney didn't turn Venom into a rainbow filled hero at least. The acting was bad. I might review this movie. - B1ueNew

I watched this and I kinda thought it was decent. - AlphaQ