Venom may not be the worst comic book movie ever made, but its uneven plotting and uneven world-building will be its downfall.
Venom has been released and it’s a huge letdown. With the level of sophistication comic book movies have gained in the past decade, the film had a lot to live up to. In fact, one can say the film could’ve succeeded had it followed any of its peers’ templates. With a badly structured script and thin world-building, Venom looks like a comic book film from another century—literally. Remember, the 1990s are in the 20th century, and we’re already in the 21st century.
WARNING: Potential Spoilers
The film opens with the proverbial space scene of something going awry on a ship as it returns to Earth. The sequence ends with a crash and ominous personnel retrieving the extraterrestrial payload. It then flashes to another scene involving our main protagonist, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy). His introduction can be summed up in one word—”adequate.” He’s not a polarizing character, and there’s an attempt to make him likable. He’s friends with his media outlet’s security guard and exposes corruption with his journalistic talents. However, Eddie does have a character flaw—and that’s his always starving for a controversial story.
He soon gives in to his hunger and accesses his girlfriend Anne Weying’s (Michelle Williams) laptop where he’s able to get a meeting with CEO Carlton Drake, the main villain and leader of the Life Foundation—the organization that sent the ship to collect the extraterrestrial samples in the first place. The meeting seems friendly at first, but Eddie’s true intentions come to light as he ambushes Carlton with a series of confrontational questions. It’s no surprise that soon after, both Eddie and Anne lose their jobs over the matter. Eddie’s life spirals further downhill when Anne breaks off their engagement due to his dishonesty.
That basically breaks the status quo for our hero … or, ahem … antihero. And that’s where the real disappointment for the film starts to set in. Unlike other superhero origin narratives where the main character becomes proactive, Eddie seems to be led from place-to-place. His chance encounter with the symbiote is not due to his continued investigation of Carlton. It’s from Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate)—Carlton’s lead scientist who’s morally conflicted—approaching Eddie and convincing him to go back with her to the Life Foundation to collect evidence. Mind you, there’s also a six-month gap between Eddie and Anne’s break-up before the story picks up with these new events. It’s discombobulated and the passage of time lowers the stakes that much more.
One of the other glaring problems with Venom is a lack of goals for the overall big picture. The save-the-earth urgency only comes during the third act. Before then, Eddie has an endless amount of time, which creates a wandering, aimless character. And these are all problems with the uninspired plotting that bogs down the whole narrative.
Not taking a cue from R-rated hits like Deadpool, Venom tries to walk the line between all-out grown-up fare and kiddie superhero action. The visuals are great to look at, but they lack a certain gusto without the support of dramatic flare. Where Deadpool‘s gun battle scenes are laced with hilarious, over-the-top, offensive humor and keen commentary, Venom‘s action scenes play with a fiend seriousness that makes audiences chuckle a bit—and not in a good way. It was akin to watching a 1990s superhero film pining for the attention of critics.
With all that said, the biggest shame is seeing actors perfect for their roles and not having the right script to support their talents. Hardy’s performance is excellent, as he portrays a blue-collar-type character fighting against the system. His interactions with the symbiote can be likened to a bromance of sorts. It’s a developing relationship that contains some good humor at times, but not enough. The script seems to be afraid of crossing some imaginary line. The writers lost a huge opportunity to do a character study, which could’ve made this into a fascinating and unique film.
Of course, nowadays, every studio is trying to create its own film universe or universes. The ending (Woody Harrelson in the cameo role of Cletus Kasady, Carnage’s host in the comics) shows Venom trying to jumpstart its own franchise. Granted, this would’ve elicited some interest had the film created a compelling world in the first place. But the narrative couldn’t even correctly perform that task. Many of the film’s downfalls are also due to inconsistent rules—one of the biggest no-nos in writing. Case in point: it was already established that Eddie was unique in that the symbiote didn’t reject him. Towards the end, we see Anne easily playing host to the symbiote in order to save Eddie. It’s glaring problems like these that prevent audiences from committing.
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This is Venom’s second prominent film appearance. The keyword here is “prominent.” Other than the notable Tobey Maguire / Sam Raimi era Spider-Man 3, Venom’s other appearance was at the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as a non-hosted form in Oscorp’s secret lab. If Sony does continue this franchise, they will need to do some serious damage control. Ultimately, box office sales for opening weekend will determine its fate.
In any event, perhaps establishing Venom in the absence of our favorite web-head was a mistake. There’s a rich history for this character and this solo outing has ignored much of it. Venom could’ve been an interesting addition as an antihero and a study on the nature of duality, but the writers chose to squander that opportunity with a superficial narrative and extremely thin theme.
Venom was released in the United States on October 5, 2018
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