He’s Not The One We Call Our Favorite Neighborhood Web Slinger, But He’s Good Enough.

By: Salvatore Cento

The symbiote not only affects Eddie Brock but those around him as well. (Credit: avforums.com)

Released on October 1st, 2018, Venom aimed to please by providing the viewer with outrageous CGI, action packed scenes and a compelling story that would possibly open up doors for another Marvel cinematic universe.

While it is an action movie where those traits should be apparent, especially where an alien symbiote bites off people’s heads, the first two mentioned is all this flick could really achieve.

Besides Tom Hardy who carries the movie in the lead role by capturing the image of somebody down on his luck with his gritty and dirty look combined with his harsh and crackling voice, the rest of the main cast is just unadorned.

Anne Weying, Brock’s fiance, who is played by Michelle Williams, is stale and forgettable. The beginning moves at such a quick pace that you don’t have time to care when she loses her job. When Eddie tries to work out their problems, you’re not surprised when you see her come home with a new boyfriend because you already learned how abrupt she can be.

Carlton Drake, played by Riz Ahmed, the CEO of Life Foundation, the corporation that brings the symbiotes to earth, really doesn’t seem threatening enough for the part.

You could tell the writers were going for the physically smaller but powerful backing type of villain, but the Life Foundation doesn’t have a noticeable foundation. They try to take Venom back with thugs and drones. Even Drake himself needs Riot to get somewhere.

Some of the minor roles such as Mrs. Chen, Maria and Roland Treece  are unique since they deviate away from the usual molds of a hero-esque movie. The dialogue that they are given fits their character’s roles and as the viewer, you are satisfied with the pairing for these specific characters.

But the biggest disappointment in this movie that ails everything within, is the script.

In a matter of a few minutes, Eddie Brock and his fiance are happily together and then just like that, both of them lose their jobs and Anne leaves him.

In a matter of a few minutes, after taking over Brock’s body, Venom names himself. He doesn’t take a liking to him at first, but changes his opinion within a moment’s notice.

By including flashbacks or background information on Eddie and Anne, and why Venom was such a loser on his home planet, or how the little girl gruesomely made her way into the Life Foundation, would have made the audience more interested in the characters.

However, there was enough action and aesthetic CGI to keep the viewers’ eyes attracted to the screen.

The way that Venom fought the thugs in Eddie’s apartment while Eddie himself was just dragged along was a new take on the “suddenly-know-how-to-fight” trope.

It was uncomfortable, in a good way, watching the symbiote oozing out of it’s containment shell, plopping onto the floor and slowly stalking the unwilling participant in the lab experiment.

The choice of using blue for the explosions instead of the typical assortment of colors for the explosions during the night time car chase scene was innovative, if not whimsical.

The climactic fight scene showed every splattering inch of the two symbiotes spreading off of their hosts and onto the other, combining and then separating.

All this was done with a slow motion, three hundred sixty degree technique so you could see all the details. This was the highlight of the movie, as the climax should be.

“Venom” keeps on climbing toward success by apologizing for its missing pieces with sophisticated action and detail to the smaller aspects of its plot.

Making more at the box office than projected, “Venom” is guaranteed to already have a sequel in the works.