THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
We weren't so satisfied of seeing Venom in Spider-Man 3 but when the character got its own movie in 2018, it was a massive improvement in comparison.
PLOT
The film takes place in San Francisco and follows Journalist Eddie Brock, who gets fired when attempting to expose Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake of illegal activities. Six Months later, he tries again with aid of whistleblower Dora Skirth, but he becomes exposed to an alien symbiote Drake has experimented on with human volunteers. Four symbiotes came to Earth, crash landing on Malaysia, but one separated slowly heading to the Life Foundation in San Francisco. When being chased by Drake's mercenaries, a day after becoming a host, the symbiote emerges as the monstrous VENOM. Venom offers to spare Eddie if they can get to one of Drake's rockets to bring more of his kind to Earth. Skirth is killed by a symbiote after Drake discovers her actions. Ex-girlfriend Anne Weying discovers Eddie's problem and with help of her new boyfriend Dan (Reid Scott), who is a doctor, they discover that the bond between him and the symbiote is damaging his organs. Although Venom says it could be fixed, Anne separates the two with the use of an MRI machine, due to the fact that a symbiote’s weakness is a high pitch sound frequency. Brock is abducted by Drake's men and Drake has bonded with the symbiote Riot, the same one that escaped but caught up. Anne does bond with Venom to save the man she used to love and the duo reunite. Venom explains that when Riot brings more of their kind to Earth, they'll devour every host. Drake only allowed this to happen because he believes that the bond between humans and symbiotes is the next step to evolution. Venom has changed his mind and wants to stay due to his connection with Eddie. The duo fight Riot & Drake and right as they escape death, they destroy the probe that kills both villains. Venom allegedly sacrifices itself to save Eddie from the explosion but survives. Since Eddie got proof of Drake’s tests, he got his job back as investigative reporter. Now that Venom remains on Earth with Eddie, they agree to only kill criminals. The film ends with them deciding to kill someone that attempted to rob the friendly convenience store owner Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu). We also get a post credit scene that briefly shows Eddie getting to exclusively interview serial killer Cletus Kasady.
THOUGHTS
When looking back at this film, I enjoyed what director Ruben Fleischer brought with this comic book film for being generally fun, but when seeing how it's edited, you can tell Sony was holding back on the film's violence. Because of that, the overall story has some flaws. First off, why aren’t other employees from MNBN offered the job to interview Drake? I get that Eddie’s popular but if the boss (Ron Cephas Jones) knows how he craves the truth, someone else should’ve taken the job. We know what Eddie does is his fault but it’s also the boss’ fault for giving him the interview. It is an interesting time lapse that it takes six months for Riot to get to San Francisco from Malaysia. But seriously, how come no one from the Life Foundation was able to try to track the symbiote from Malaysia? Maybe he or she would be a host too but it could be possible for Riot to get there faster. Also I know this is about Eddie becoming one with Venom but if Dora wanted to be clever with blowing the whistle she should’ve taken pics herself and sent them to Eddie, than Eddie himself would interview her. I feel like if that could happen, than they would likely be safe if officials offered their protection. I get that Annie is supposed to know what’s going on but I do not believe that the first place she would go to find him would be a workplace he wasn’t worked for in six months. It just makes no sense. I get that they want both villains to unite as Riot fuses with Drake but how did the child host get to the Life Foundation without being stopped by adults? Kids can be sneaky but I have a hard time believing Riot was this sneaky with the kid. I even find it ridiculous how the henchmen choose to attempt to kill Eddie outside the building when they could’ve done it inside because they had no problem before. If they did what they were usually doing, they likely would’ve not been quickly killed by She Venom. And lastly, I know it’s a good buildup for Venom to eat the burglar in the end but that burglar should’ve killed Eddie earlier because he could’ve called the cops that time. I’m not trying to root for the villains but I’m just saying they could be smarter. If you can ignore all of these flaws, than there is a good chance you’ll still enjoy it. Like many blockbusters, the big selling point comes through a memorable lead. Tom Hardy’s dual performance of Venom and Eddie Brock is entertaining and more charismatic than I expected. Every time I watch it, I don't recognize his voice as Venom at all, which makes the performance more convincing. Eddie can be a bit of a narcissist, while Venom partially acts manipulative to satisfy his hunger. It was hard at first to like Eddie considering that he went low using Anne’s classified documents of Drake without consent, which got her fired as an attorney. But the fact that Venom convinced him to apologize, it was a redeeming moment that surprisingly payed off. It's hard to say that he deserved to be redeemed because he went so low, but it proves that it's never too late to get there. The scene where he publicly goes to town on a lobster, you just know he’s going for it in the term of method acting. Although Hardy straight up carries this film to a tea, I do respect the supporting cast trying to catch up. There isn't much to say with Jenny Slate, but she does seem to make the most of playing Dora Skirth. She is someone who loved being part of something revolutionary, but rightfully became disturbed of what was making it so, hence doing the right thing blowing the whistle. While death wasn't part of her plan, I'll always respect her attempt to do the right thing. Michelle Williams was a pleasant surprise because I never expected her to be a part of this genre. She made Annie likable because of how she is a patient and focused person. While I don't like Dan, it is logical for her to go back in Eddie's arms because it's not easy to forgive someone that gets you fired. While the symbiote kiss was weird, it was cool that she got to briefly be She Venom. I was mostly impressed with Riz Ahmed in the supporting cast because he just makes it work in the antagonistic role of Carlton Drake. He is an egoistic and malevolent guy that is obsessed with evolving because he knows it'll benefit him more than others. So when he finds Riot, they were more of a match made in hell because they had similar goals, not caring of the after effects. Thankfully, their plans were not a success because their 'nice lives' ended before they could evolve. The visuals are good when we see Venom in action, but it gets sloppy during the fight with Riot, as it is hard to tell what is displayed between these characters. I'm not sure if that was the point of that fight scene. I respect that there is no presence of Spider-Man, because that is what it took to make this movie its own thing. And last but not least, the after credit appearance of Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady is interesting because the actor does his best to depict the character as creepy and sinister as he is supposed to be, making it a clever build up for the sequel Let There Be Carnage. Going off subject, I personally think that one did a better job with the violence in its PG 13 rating. In short, Venom is one of those films that might try too hard, but it actually still pays off in the long run. So if you love comic book films, I think you’ll have a soft spot for this one like I do.
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