[usr 2.5]
When Eddie Brock acquires the powers of a symbiote, he will have to release his alter-ego “Venom” to save his life.
On the whole, “Venom” isn’t as bad as everyone hypes it up to be. The story, one we’re familiar with, doesn’t seem wholly derivative. It’s largely another byproduct in the long chain of blockbusters that somehow falls under the category of ‘suerhero’ (although I guess we’re calling it super-villain in this instance.) The story follows Eddie Brock, a vice-style investigative journalist who comes in contact with an alien life substance while investigating the (wait for it) Life Corporation. This symbiote turns out to be the Spider-Man villain Venom but it’s okay because Venom has enemies of his own and through his own selfish motivations, he wants to stop them from destroying Earth.
Altogether, Tom Hardy, Riz Ahmed, and Michelle Williams carry this movie. I swear, anything Riz Ahmed is in, I should watch because he’s magnetic. Hardy and Ahmed deliver entire monologues in this movie that ooze with character and charisma, giving us exposition but in a delightful manner. Yeah, the dialogue is coddled in exposition and the story requires quite a bit of plotting to really catch fire. In fact, it plods along so quickly I almost didn’t realize the turning point for our heroes and I think it’s because of the missing forty minutes.
Tom Hardy, in a recent interview, said some of his favorite work he did was removed from the movie and I think I know why. You see, the current run-time on this one is two hours. That’s more than enough screen time with Venom. But a solid half of it is just getting to the point where Venom takes over Eddie’s body. Then you have the internal conflict and the external conflict. It takes a lot to get to the point where Tom Hardy/Venom face off against Riz Ahmed/Riot. So I understand cutting forty minutes out of the plot. But those forty minutes were PROBABLY the cheap dialogue between Eddie Brock and his symbiote. The forty minutes that justifies Venom’s change of heart and the forty minutes that makes Ahmed/Riot’s combination even more devilish. It’s PROBABLY character development for the audience, but we’ll never know. As far as story goes, two characters chatting is much more likely to be cut than two characters fighting.
In the end, there’s a tone I didn’t expect for the movie that kind of wins my general acceptance. Once Eddie Brock accepts his symbiote Venom as a partner, they get into this quick banter that allows us to see a buddy-cop dynamic we actually enjoy. I laughed at certain parts, which surprised me.
The action works well until the end when it dissolves into a hyper-cut montage of two amorphous life-forms battling. Generally? I liked the movie. Sure, go see it in theaters. Maybe it’s your weekend off and you don’t want to see Oscar-bait “A Star Is Born.” Don’t expect things to get too crazy with “Venom” (it’s PG-13) but do expect some violence. Oh! And stick around for the post-credits and mid-credits scenes! Setup! Possibly for movies that won’t happen, but still…
In theaters Friday, October 5th
