‘Venom’ Review: Equal Parts Fun and Terrible
Venom isn’t a good superhero movie.
For all its attempts at seriousness, being edgy, cool, and socially relevant, the movie is really a mediocre rom-com.
The story follows down on his luck reporter Eddy Brock (Tom Hardy) whose life changes when he is bonded with man-eating alien, Venom (Tom Hardy). Over the course of a few magical days, they grow closer and teach each other about life, love, and finding one’s purpose all while sharing many laughs along the way.
There are also a few subplots involving an Elon Musk stand-in (Riz Ahmed) doing evil things because he’s evil, and Eddy Brock trying to win back his ex-fiancée (Michelle Williams), but neither of those are very interesting.
The film is full of bland set-design, boring cinematography, pointless characters and scenes, and bad pacing, especially early on. The stakes always seem low because Venom is so powerful and, honestly, I don’t give a shit about any of the characters other than Brock. Riz Ahmed kills more people on screen than any other supervillain besides Thanos but never seems particularly threatening. All the actors besides Hardy are just here for a paycheck, delivering dull, uninspired performances despite their immense talent. The action sequences are serviceable, but the CGI symbiotes never look remotely believable, lending the whole film a sense of cartoonish un-realism. Venom also wears social issues (the San Francisco homeless crisis, out-of-touch tech billionaires, the state of contemporary journalism, etc.) like a pair of intentionally-ripped jeans. It puts them on to seem cool and interesting, but there isn’t much substance and it ends up looking pretty stupid.
That said, Venom is pretty damn funny. Much of the film is intentionally comedic, and a lot of it works or is so stupid that it works in a “The Room” sort of way. Tom Hardy proves he is probably the greatest actor working today, throwing himself with abandon into the absolute insanity his role demands. Watching him run around a restaurant screaming at people and then violently eating the heads off lobsters is worth the price of admission. In fact, Hardy’s performance as both Brock and Venom is really the only high point of the movie, but it’s almost worth sitting through all the terrible dialogue, boring story, and technical mediocrity.
I’m not sure why Ruben Fleischer is allowed to make movies and I can only imagine how great it would be if someone like Sam Raimi had made this instead, but on some level I’m glad Venom exists. The world needs brilliant actors like Tom Hardy give 110% for some terrible garbage flick from time to time, and Venom fits the bill.
