The world has enough super heroes…
Venom has finally gotten his own movie! As a long time Venom fan, I have never been terribly impressed with prior films portrayal of the character. Venom played a major part in the early Spider-Man cartoons and video games. He was always a tough opponent for Spider-Man, and I’ve always wanted to see them duke it out on the big screen. However, this movie does not even mention Spider-Man’s existence. It instead provides an all new story, perhaps set in an alternate universe, where Eddie Brock (Venom) has been chased out of New York and is now living in San Francisco.
Eddie Brock, played by Tom Hardy, is a big shot news reporter that has a knack for exposing corruption. When he gets the chance to interview the infamous Dr. Carlton Drake, played by Riz Ahmed, Eddie uses every resource available to him to confront and accuse Dr. Carlton Drake of committing crimes against humanity. Unfortunately for Eddie, his life quickly takes a turn for the worse as he finds out just how much influence and power Dr. Carlton Drake has.
Venom likes to eat people. He’s also a nice guy. It’s complicated.
Venom is a symbiotic alien from outer space. After arriving on Earth, he meets up with Eddie Brock and attempts to bond/merge with him. Together, the two have super human abilities. Eddie Brock becomes super strong, bullet proof and incredibly fast.
At first Eddie is unsure what has happened to him. He starts hearing Venom’s voice, and then starts getting weird cravings, before finally realizing what Venom is. The two take a while to warm up to each-other, but they end up teaming up to save the world from a second symbiotic alien.
A large part of the movie is spent on showing Eddie’s and Venom’s relationship. I was very impressed with the amount of character development that went into them. Creating a like-able character with depth is the key to making a successful film. There are already rumors that there will be a second Venom movie.
The humor is a bit twisted, but there’s no gore.
The movie Venom is a bit dark at moments, but also really funny. After beating up a bunch of thugs early on in the movie, Eddie and Venom share this special moment:
Venom: Outstanding! Now, let’s bite off all the heads and pile them up in the corner.
Eddie Brock: Why would we do that?
Venom: Because, a pile of bodies and a pile of heads.
The movie was really well done in my opinion. It has also been doing very well at the box office. Despite the amount of heads that get bitten off throughout the film, we never actually see the blood and gore. The movie has no sexual scenes, no nudity, minimal cursing, and is rather clean all around. I would reckon to say that it’s as safe to watch as most Marvel films. With that said though, it is important to note that this is NOT a Disney movie. Disney did not help make or have any part in the creation of this Venom film.
I would definitely recommend Venom for a watch. It’s worth seeing in theaters, as a rental and even as a purchase. It’ll probably make it into my DVD/Blu-Ray Collection.
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 1hr 52min
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
HFR Rating:
