Believe me there is a lot wrong with Venom but as far as I’m concerned, Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock isn’t one of them. Apart from his sketchy accent which left me wondering which part of US his character could possibly be from, he was the only character I even remotely gave a crap about. When he loses his job as a reporter due to using confidential information from his fiancé’s documents to ask questions of the CEO of the unquestionably evil Life Foundation Colton Drake (Riz Ahmed), he really becomes a real down on his luck character who has trouble finding work, is way overdue in paying bills (and possibly rent) and really missing his former life. It is about 6 months from his life going to hell to the primary events of the movie and it really does seem that getting the symbiote was the best thing that could happen to him.
This is where the movie becomes a strange buddy comedy. Most of the movie is Eddie trying to live with the Venom symbiote and eventually becoming friends with it. There are a ton of funny moments between the two; from Venom calling Eddie loser among other mean names, Eddie trying to feed Venom and himself to keep Venom from eating Eddie’s insides, to having the two of them insult each other. In this story, Eddie and Venom from a strange friendship that does become a bit endearing. Venom admits that on the comet where he and all the other symbiotes come from he’s a bit of a loser and wants to stay on Earth as he grows to like living there and wants to protect it from other symbiotes that Drake is wanting to bring back. The two become friends throughout the story when they realize that they have more in common than they once thought. So, this movie may fail as a proper introduction for the Venom character in Marvel movies, but it works in the buddy comedy aspect.
The Eddie Brock/Venom dynamic is literally the only thing that works in this movie. Pretty much nothing else works. At all. The visuals are average sometimes and at other times just ugly. This is especially true when it comes to the symbiote effects which look a bit too cartoony most of the time and feel more at home in a straight up CGI movie. The worst part are the action scenes. The bike chase, for example, is very standard issue with a few funny moments here and there. It is the type of city bike/car chase you have seen in pretty much every modern action movie ever. But the end battle between Eddie/Venom and Drake/Riot is a chaotic mess as I could barely tell what was going on, and it was giving me a major headache. The action was pretty much what it looked like in the trailers, stale and in the end case of the battle; unbearable.
Apart from Tom Hardy, the performances from the rest of the cast is nothing to write home about. Michelle Williams is pretty much wasted as Anne, Eddie’s ex-fiancé (who left him after he used confidential information in her files and got her fired) but with what she had to work with she wasn’t terrible and who could begrudge an easy payday right? But the worst offender is Riz Ahmed as the evil CEO character Colton Drake. He is one of the worst villains I have ever seen in a movie as he has absolutely no menace or authority as an evil corporate villain. Even when he has his own symbiote merge with him to form Riot, you still can’t take him seriously as he still comes across as the overachieving know-it-all jackass you would encounter in high school or college that made you want to either punch him in his stupid face every time you saw him or just stuff him in a locker.
But arguably the biggest complaint that this movie has running against it and one I sympathize with is the lack of a certain web slinger to make it complete. I don’t understand why they didn’t just take their time to develop a proper Spider-Man and Venom film with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Tom Hardy’s Venom. It was something the fans truly wanted and it would have been immensely satisfying to see happen. But no, Sony decided to do what Sony does best…screw it up. But hey, this one is making money so who knows? They already teased Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) at the end so maybe something may come of it. But still, I don’t think this is the proper way to introduce Eddie Brock/Venom. Spider-Man 3 was a bad movie but at least it got that part right.
I guess I would have to call Venom a good bad movie. If it weren’t for the dynamic between Eddie Brock and Venom and their shenanigans this would be an unwatchable disaster. This is not an exaggeration as they literally saved the movie for me. I dare say this might be a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I suppose you could go see it if you have nothing better to do or if you are curious.