Venom

Guess what online readers? Tonight, I got to watch “Venom,” which came out four days ago. Now, I will give everyone my thoughts on the movie. 

Matthew Rozsa started his review by admitting, “Call me crazy — certainly I'm in a minority when it comes to my fellow critics — but I liked "Venom." Heck, if it wasn't for the sloppy and formulaic script, I might have even loved it. At a time when every superhero film tries to (a) serve as either the springboard for or the continuation of a cinematic universe, (b) bog itself down in ponderous self-importance a la "The Dark Knight" or (c) do both of those things, it is refreshing to watch a movie that tells a self-contained story — fully aware of the fact that by virtue of its genre it is going to be braindead and cheesy — and as a result is just plain fun.” 

In fact, if “Venom” wasn’t based on a famous superhero character (one of the many villains Venom, who was first in a movie in “Spider-Man 3”), it could just be basic horror action comedy. It is about Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), a devoted reporter who unintentionally ruins both his job and his relationship with Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) when he hacks on her laptop so he can face the crazy billionaire scientist, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) about his handful of dirty business deals. Six months later, Brock is a nobody who can’t keep himself straight, and that is how he would have stayed if it wasn’t for one of Drake’s employees, played by Jenny Slate, who found him to explain that what he thought about Drake was right this whole time. This makes Brock break into Drake’s high-tech science lab and, as things always happen, the whole plan ends up with Brock getting an alien symbiote named Venom transferred to him by his friend Maria, played by Melora Walters, who gives him superpowers while speaking to him in his head. Even with the help of Anne’s doctor boyfriend, played by Reid Scott, they can’t figure things out completely. 

This isn’t really the basic movie formula for the superhero genre, but you could forgive that when you think that when looking at the synopsis. Rozsa said, “The Venom/Brock hybrid isn't exactly a hero; for most of the film's running time, they're focused primarily on self-preservation, and it isn't until Venom realizes that he is also a loser like Brock that they team up to save the planet in the name of naked self-interest.” 

With that, seeing how “Venom” tries to lighten up the superhero genre by making the protagonist into an antihero doesn’t really make the movie work. Rozsa mentioned, “Like all genre pictures, "Venom" lives or dies by the execution of its standard parts rather than by its originality.” Even though I know that the movie is nowhere near perfect, it has more good elements than bad. 

I know this film isn’t getting good reviews from critics, but I personally had an enjoyable time watching this movie at work tonight. It was funny, action-packed, but I know there were parts where it was messy. However, I still think everyone should go to the theaters to watch this movie and judge it based on your own reasons and not listen to the critics. 

Spoiler alter: in the mid-credit's scene, Brock goes to a prison to interview serial killer Cletus Kasady, played by Woody Harrelson, and the post-credits scene is an animated Spider-Man segment that I think is setting up for the animated Spider-Man movie coming out next month. 

Before I saw this film, I did notice that they are thinking of making sequels to this movie, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they somehow combine this with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, if Disney doesn’t buy Sony soon. We’ll see if that happens, but for now, definitely see this movie.  Especially since they had been talking about making this spin-off ever since "The Amazing Spider-Man" movies. I think that this film is better than "Spider-Man 3" since Tom Hardy did a better job as Venom than Topher Grace did.

Thanks for joining in on my review tonight. Stay tuned tomorrow for the continuation of this year’s “Halloween Month.”