Written by: Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, Kelly Marcel, Will Beall
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
IMDb Link
Earlier this year, Logan Marshall Green starred in the movie Upgrade, which is probably the movie you should watch if you want to see a good Venom movie.
In case you hadn't noticed, the plot is pretty silly, and the film's progression and execution of certain points seem slapdash or arbitrary at best. Stakes get raised with half-hearted deceptions or explanations on the fly, and the movie doesn't seem to care too much about them in the first place. Most of the film seems constructed purely for mass appeal, and a lot of the time, that just means being entertaining in the moment without much thought to the next. This leads to a lot of tonal issues in the film: Venom never seems quite sure if it wants to be a gritty body horror or some goofy kids movie, and this problem is so consistent that it's the sort of the thing that will likely make you either love the film ironically or hate it outright.
Personally, as much as I know that these sorts of tonal issues make for a bad film, they're so forced in Venom that they create some of the most unintentionally funny moments in any movie I've seen this year. Eddie eats a live lobster while cooling off in a lobster tank, Venom makes Eddie wolf down Tater Tots, Venom bonds with Eddie's ex Anne (Williams) and they kiss to transfer the bond, so Eddie literally makes out with a gender-bent Venom. Some of these moments I'm sure were meant to be actually funny, but I could only laugh at how bad it ended up coming across in the same film where homeless people are being captured for the purpose of experimentation and Eddie loses a friend as a result. It's a shame, too, because if it had been properly committed to, the gritty slant might have worked, but it's so undercut by awkward attempts to be funny that the darker side of the film just comes across as bland. I guess the writers felt it was just necessary for Venom to give dating tips to Eddie, to be arbitrarily too aware of how humans work or completely oblivious to it as the script needed, and for him to drop that disasterpiece of a line: "... like a turd, in the wind."
The action fairs a little better, but with the stakes changing on a dime, Venom's seeming invincibility, and his sound weakness only coming up a couple of times, decent execution of car chases and monster brawls becomes a lot less interesting. A lot of what Venom can do is really cool in concept, but he's so unstoppable at all times that it becomes tedious for how long it goes on. There's a few moments that show off Eddie getting used to the powers that are kind of fun, but it's mostly just noise.
Thankfully, Tom Hardy is every bit the (anti) hero we need to make this watchable. He gives every scene exactly what the character needs to be likable: he's excessive and brooding and goofy all when the script demands it, so even though the movie keeps throwing scenes that are all off tonally, it's not his fault, because it's clear that he's doing exactly as the scene demands, even if the scene shouldn't have demanded it. As much as I don't want any more movies from this franchise, I'd be happy to see Hardy as Venom again.
The Short Version: The action is serviceable and Tom Hardy gives it a damn good try, but Venom doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Gritty one moment and goofy the next, either tone if committed to would have worked fine, but Venom never makes that choice, and a lot of scenes suffer as a result, meaning I was left with a film that I was laughing at more often than I was laughing with.
Rating: 4.5/10
Published October 5th, 2018
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