Sony Tries Again with Venom

After two underwhelming Spider-Man movies, Sony once again pushes the reset button only this time focusing on the rogues gallery. Since fans were none too pleased on the portrayal of fan favorite villain Venom in Spider-Man 3, what better way to appease them than by giving him his own movie. Will this gambit pay off or should Sony call it quits while they still can?

Eddie and Amy

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a popular TV journalist who exposes the many injustices and crooked higher-ups in San Francisco. When his district attorney fiance Ann Weying (Michelle Williams), carries incriminating evidence on the Life Foundation genetics lab, he dives right into the story and its shady boss Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). This causes to lose his job, apartment, and Ann in the process. Already living rock bottom, one of the Life scientists, Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), gets the guts to find Eddie and inform him on the company's evil secret. Experiments are being conducted involving alien specimen called symbiotes. Slimy creatures that latch onto living organisms to survive. They enhance the host in strength, speed and power before controlling the body as its own. As Eddie investigates, a symbiotic gets loose and takes him as its new host. Reborn as the vile Venom, Eddie juggles between his ballistic persona à la Jekyll and Hyde while fighting off Drake's men who are after the escaped symbiote.

The symbiote taking control.

The movie is a product of Sony not wanting to relinquish Spider-Man back to Marvel/Disney, despite permission of appearing in the MCU. In the comics and cartoons, Venom is a nasty creature that infects its host into doing what it wants. When it latched on Spider-Man it made him an outright jerk to the point of almost killing his adversaries. Realizing the threat it posed, he got rid of the alien slime only for it to latch on Eddie Brock. Brock already had a personal vendetta against Spider-Man and with the symbiote it took that rage and turned him into a monster. Whether the victim is good or bad, the symbiote will twists its mind and have it do its evil bidding. Kind of hard to picture this guy as a hero. It's even harder when Spider-Man is the one element missing from the movie. He is what makes Venom an interesting villain as he knows everything about the hero and does all he can to destroy him mentally and physically.

Carlton Drake and Eddie.

This version of the Venom slime is not evil just hungry, grouchy and can strangely relate to Brock who is already nice guy when we meet him. The character has resurfaced as an anti-hero in the comics and the Spider-Man cartoon from the nineties showed that he can be seen in a sympathetic light but again it is Eddie Brock who changes not the ooze as it still wants to dominate despite Brock's change of heart. Even the Spider-Man video games knew that in the instances Venom teams up with Spider-Man he is already an established villain but seeing him cooperate with Spider-Man to fight a greater evil adds that he can be capable of good. Here, that arc is forcibly rushed and silly.

My, what big arms you have. 

So is Venom as bad as say Fantastic Four (2015) or Catwoman (2004)? I think the better comparison would be with Jim Carrey's The Mask. Both share similarities of losers obtaining a strange item that transform them into a crazy superhero. While the story, love interest and villain leave no impression whatsoever, the character and his manically alter-ego are enjoyable to watch. Both are based on source material known for is brutal violence that is toned down with a PG-13 rating and end with a sequel tease.

We hates it, no we love it. 

The inner conversations Brock has with Venom give to some funny and memorable scenes. When it gets to the action its fun to watch, but when it slows down it becomes a wearisome sit-through. Get back to the Brock and symbiote dynamic. It may not be well-interpreted but at least its entertaining on seeing the goofy choices that went with this story. If we do get a sequel as shown after the post-credits, I won't mind, and if not I won't mind either. Even if you don't like Venom, Sony has another chance with Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse. 

Final Verdict: C+