VENOM (2018) Review

Imagine you are being forced to make a movie. But, you have to make it seem like it was made about 15 years too late. Also, it can’t make any logical sense. Moreover, you cannot portray any sort of character development, you cannot conjure any character likeability for secondary characters, but you can include terrible CGI and (unfortunately for him) Tom Hardy. Congratulations, you’ve just made VENOM (2018)!

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is San Francisco’s top investigative journalist, but when an interview with science mogul Dr. Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) goes awry, Eddie loses everything. As Dr. Drake is at the brink of a scientific breakthrough including alien symbiotes and very shady research, Eddie manages to break-in and acquires powers of a symbiote. Eddie must now learn to live with his alter-ego “Venom”, or face major consequences.

VENOM does not have a consistent or engaging storyline. It’s quite remarkable to have a movie where a storyline is so blatantly presented, yet having it almost entirely not exist. Events in this movie were very obvious, and given the dark and flighty nature that Venom’s character possesses, this should not have been the case. It seems to happen often that the audience is left wondering whether the event that just happened was one of significance, as some major developments were given to the audience at the speed of light, while others were simply brushed off in what I hope is an editing accident. Whatever the case may be Fleischer fails to convey a meaningful array of interactions, and creates a story in which details or fact-checking do not matter. At all. For example, the symbiote/human relationship made no sense, and that anybody who says they can explain that part of the movie is lying to you.

This movie does not boast any spectacular performances, either. Hardy, in the protagonist role, bodes well due to his consistently and naturally appealing nature. However, Williams and Ahmed deliver career lows with their respective portrayals of Anne Weying and Dr. Drake. For Williams, the dialogue is to blame; it’s very hard to deliver a somber line about a fictional man-killing symbiote. However, in Ahmed’s case, I believe his role was extremely miscast. He failed to express the psychopathic tone needed for his character and his dialogue, and all sense of urgency was missing in his conveyance.

Having said all this, VENOM still somewhat manages to maintain an entertaining tone. The interactions between Eddie and Venom are not so light-hearted, but are an elusive type of charming and were easily my favourite part of the film. While I was not a fan of 90% of the dialogue in this film, as it was meaningless and redundant, the dialogue between Eddie and his parasite are the only form of character development the audience can see, even though their joint development is unquestionably rushed.

I believe wholeheartedly that there was no way that a VENOM movie made in 2018 could have been good. I truly believe that. Tom Hardy is a great Eddie Brock, and the relationship between him and Venom on-screen was relatively good. Yet, it could not save the absolute carnage that arose around it. I hope Tom Hardy was able to use this movie to release at least a little bit of pent-up energy; only then will it have contributed positively to society.

Score: 2.4/10

Jade