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VENOM (2018) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

venom (2018) movie

Genre | Science Fiction

Classification | MA 15+

Running time | 100+ minutes

Released | 4 October 2018

cast

Tom Hardy ... Eddie Brock
Michelle Williams ... Anne Weying
Woody Harrelson
Riz Ahmed ... Dr. Carlton Drake

director

Ruben Fleischer

writer

Kelly Marcel ... (screenplay by) and
Will Beall ... (screenplay by)

Scott Rosenberg ... (screenplay by)
Todd McFarlane ... (based on the Marvel comics by)
Jeff Pinkner ... (screenplay by)
David Michelinie ... (based on the Marvel comics by)

cinematographer

Matthew Libatique

music

Ludwig Göransson

film editor

Alan Baumgarten ... (edited by)
Maryann Brandon ... (edited by)

box office result

Worldwide $470 million

Australia $13 million

North America $180 million

the best dialogue

Eddie Brock: Everyone's got their thing! Maybe it's a break-up. A death. An accident. Whatever it is, you used to be one thing. Now, you're something else. We all have our own problems. Our own issues. Our own... demons!

Eddie Brock: If you're going to stay, you will only hurt bad people.

Venom: The way I see it... we can do whatever we want. Do we have a deal?

Isaac: What the hell are you?
Venom: [emerges] WE... are Venom.

VENOM (2018) MOVIE IMAGES

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VENOM (2018) STORY SYNOPSIS

One of Marvel's most enigmatic, complex and badass characters comes to the big screen, starring Academy Award® nominated actor Tom Hardy as the lethal protector Venom.

VENOM (2018) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty | Review date 6 October 2018
Pop Movee Rating ⭐⭐⭐

VENOM is the Superhero movie nobody knew they needed…

For a film that had the potential to be an absolute train wreck, this Sony-Marvel experiment delivers a solid action story with all the Comic Book movie trimmings. While it’s nowhere near as slick as its Marvel-produced cousins, VENOM has an early 2000s charm that makes it much closer in spirit to the first couple of Bryan Singer X-MEN films and the Sam Raimi SPIDER-MAN movies. The fact that the viewer doesn’t need to have a decade’s worth of investment in the story and the characters is a welcome change.

VENOM can be (but, because it’s the first in a planned trilogy, also must be) enjoyed on its own merits. The film doesn’t even reference Spider-Man. It’s quite determined to be a success without relying on its connection to your friendly neighbourhood webslinger or too much of anything else from either the Marvel comic book or cinematic canon. Like another Marvel Anti-Hero, VENOM operates in a manner that is slightly removed from the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe and, for the sake of the film’s enjoyment, this is a good thing.

For those unfamiliar with the character, here’s a brief history lesson…

The character of Venom became part of the Marvel universe literally by design. In the early 1980s, Marvel management purchased the concept of a “black and white Spider-Man costume” from a fan. A couple of years later, the costume took on a life of its own in Spider-Man story where Peter Parker learns the alternate outfit is actually a living creature and seeking to take control of him.

In 1984, the concept of the “alien symbiote” was introduced and that changed the whole dynamic of what the black and white costume represented. It wasn’t until 1988 that the character of Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy in the new film, was introduced and Venom took centre stage in the Spider-verse. From that point, Venom has featured in all kinds of stories and has bounced between characters through various storylines, popping up in such diverse series as the Avengers and Fantastic Four. The Eddie Brock storylines, however, have been the most popular and this is the character Sony have decided will anchor their Venom franchise…

So, why Tom Hardy?

The announcement that Hardy had signed on to play Eddie Brock/Venom was met with curiosity by many. People who had come to admire Hardy’s character-driven, off-beat films struggled to see him in a leading man comic book character role. Sure, he’s played fictional characters in franchise films before, but this is different...

Back in 2012, he played Batman’s tormentor, Bane in THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. One of his earliest roles was Captain Picard’s clone in the 2002 film, STAR TREK: NEMESIS. His role as the reimagined lead character in George Miller’s 2015 MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was a revelation and central to the success of one of the most acclaimed Science Fiction genre movies ever produced. Hardy has form playing larger-than-life characters, so why should Eddie Brock be any different?

It’s different because VENOM is a big budget, major studio backed, Marvel based character. To put it into perspective, Bane and Shinzon were supporting roles in franchise movies that were at the end of their life cycle. With FURY ROAD, there was no guarantee of commercial or critical success. That film had been delayed several times and expectations were low. It wasn’t until Comic Con 2014 that anyone had any idea what George Miller had actually achieved.

There’s so much more riding on VENOM than any of those other movies.

There’s reputational risk for Sony. Not so long ago, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN was regarded as a multi-film series with genuine young talent to help sustain the films for an extended period. For reasons only known to those involved, Andrew Garfield ran off the rails and the series came to an abrupt hold just two films in, just as Sony’s in-house production team began to lay the groundwork for multiple films based on characters introduced in the second film. If VENOM doesn’t work, Sony will have to - once again - go back to the drawing board and work out how to maximise their library of Marvel cinematic characters.

For that very reason, VENOM has to be commercially successful. No one is expecting the film to be a contender for dramatic recognition, but it had to be entertaining and it had to avoid the “Universe building” plot devices that were the downfall of the second Andrew Garfield film. On both counts, VENOM is a winner.

There’s also reputational risk for Marvel. The casting of Tom Hardy helps to mitigate some of the concerns that Marvel would have had about VENOM. Marvel Studios cast known performers in key roles as a way to guarantee name recognition for each new franchise they roll out. They helped Sony maximise the introduction of Tom Holland as the new Spider-Man by having the character appear in CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR. They also allowed the reciprocal appearance of Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark in SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING. Even though VENOM appears to sit outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there’s not much doubt that Marvel Studios won’t want Sony wandering too far off the reservation when it comes to the manner in which they use “Marvel” characters. This will become an even greater consideration after the Disney acquisition of 20th Century Fox is completed and control of the X-MEN and FANTASTIC FOUR characters returns to the control of Marvel Studios.

While Hardy’s Eddie Brock is not a “Home Run”, he manages to do enough with the dual-character role that, by the end of the film, there’s enough evidence to show that he has the ability to make the character work and, even more importantly, make the viewers like Venom. (Not an easy task given the character’s predilection for chomping on human heads!). Sony have been extremely optimistic, signing Tom Hardy for three VENOM films, so management must be confident this first feature will get the job done. The mid-credit teaser also suggests Sony have a plan for the character, along with other incarnations of the symbiote alien species that Venom derives from.

As far as other cast members making an impression, there’s not much happening…

Michelle Williams, as Eddie’s love interest - Anne Weying - is extremely vanilla. William’s character does her best in trying to make Eddie see sense about his blind pursuit of the truth, but there’s not much chemistry between her or Hardy, so the drama that sets Eddie on the path to becoming Venom lacks authenticity and operates as a plot device rather than organic character development (or in this case, regression).

Riz Ahmed plays Carlton Drake, whose take on the “Bad Guy” almost qualifies as pantomime (by way of exaggerated performance). Not one shred of Ahmed’s character impresses the viewer as resembling anything close to a real person. Drake is certainly rotten to the core, but not even his “evil” feels real. Every action, every word, feels forced. Yes, this is a movie based on a comic book, where the heroes (or anti-hero in this case) are over-the-top and the villains are even more over-the-top, but, Christopher Nolan proved over a decade ago that sometimes you need to dial the villain back to make the hero’s journey more meaningful…

The Verdict...

Dumb fun. Pure and simple.

Director Ruben Fleischer and the writing team (Jeff Pinker, Scott Rosenberg & Kelly Marcel) have delivered exactly what Sony wanted from this first VENOM movie.

It’s a success in spite of its limitations, but, like Venom himself, this new franchise will need to find something meaningful to bond with in the next outing if it’s to be a going concern.

Tom Hardy proves to be a solid choice as the lead, but next time, it would be advisable to surround him with some stronger supporting talent to help him extract maximum value from the inherent “split personality” scenarios that can be explored with the character. Combined with a story incorporating a little more of the Spider-verse, the next VENOM could be the film that finally gives Sony another Marvel franchise that supports SPIDER-MAN.

For the moment, accept that VENOM is what it is and embrace it for its silliness!