I may be one of the few people who enjoyed how Venom, the iconic Spider-Man villain, was used in Spider-Man 3. With that in mind, once it became clear that Sony was really going ahead with a standalone film starring the character, I was skeptical for a few reasons. For one, Spider-Man's usage in the MCU thus far has been very well-received; they may as well have saved him to become a major antagonist down the road (the finer details of the Marvel Studios/Sony deal for using Spider-Man characters have never been clear). For another, would anyone really be willing to pay to see a movie featuring a villain in a superhero (antihero?) role? Well, based on the box office return for this film, apparently the answer to that question is "yes." So box office was good, but what about the actual film?
Tom Hardy stars as Eddie Brock, a hard-hitting journalist who's made a living out of finding juicy stories for the public to eat up. But when his thirst for a story ends up damaging his personal and professional relationships, he winds up bonding with a mysterious alien specimen known as a "symbiote." Calling themselves Venom, Eddie and the creature end up in a race against time to stop a full-scale invasion of an army of symbiotes. Other cast members include Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Riz Ahmed as Carlton Drake AKA Riot, and Reid Scott as Dan Lewis.
Venom plays out like a very weird buddy-cop movie; Eddie is a regular guy who finds himself in way over his head, while Venom insists on dragging him along for the ride as he throws people through windows, licks their faces, and occasionally bites their heads. It was a unique experience seeing Venom and Eddie's relationship develop. As for the characters themselves, Eddie is a decent guy who goes through some very strange, bizarre events that I don't think he'd write a story about. Venom, on the other hand, is where we get most of the movie's over-the-top moments. He doesn't really take himself too seriously, though we can chalk that up to him being something of an outlier among his species. One thing that may turn off some Venom fans is that he's more quippy than they might expect, but he does have some pretty fun lines throughout ("So many snacks, so little time."). And I give Tom Hardy a bunch of credit for his dual performances as Eddie and Venom.
Obviously one thing that everybody expects from a movie starring such an iconic and brutal character is good action scenes. The action doesn't really start until midway through the movie (I think), but once it does, it's pretty entertaining. I'm sure some were disappointed that they made this film PG-13, as they were expecting it to be an R-rated, blood-filled gore fest along the lines of something like the Friday the 13th movies. While there's not a whole lot of blood in this movie, that doesn't mean it's lacking in the brutal department.
Venom gets plenty of moments to attack puny humans, and his more violent tendencies (eating people) do come out from time to time. The CGI isn't the greatest I've ever seen, but it works well for this kind of movie. Venom's design is mostly faithful to the comics (though there's no spider emblem), with a big, muscular build, lots of sharp teeth, and that overly-long, slimy tongue. The final battle with Riot is probably the most entertaining scene in the movie, and it is admittedly fun to see two alien monsters beat the hell out of each other.
Venom may not break any new ground in effects or story, but it manages to serve as a good time. It remains to be seen whether Sony can maintain this Spider-Man-less approach going forward, but we'll see what happens.
