Venom
Mini Non-Spoiler Review
[October 05th, 2018]
[PG-13, 1hr 52min, Action, Horror, Sci-Fi, Sony Spider-Verse, Thriller]
Sony is doing something different this time around with a solo film of a well-known Spider-Man arch-nemesis without the wallcrawler himself, and with its success hopefully will spearhead a Sony Spider-Verse of its own. A decision that is deemed too perplexing for the comic purists but I understand their insistence to venture out on their own, as part of their agreement with Marvel to 'lent back' the superpowered teenager to be reintroduced in the MCU. With that being said, the final product left a lot to be desired but it is still an entertaining antihero action flick nonetheless to me!
The whole script is quite straightforward as the storyline focuses on the shady antics in the Life Foundation and how Eddie Brock's investigation gets him entangled in its web and eventually comes into contact with the infamous Symbiote itself(not Sym-BYE-ote, Sym-BI-ote!). How it is told is another different matter altogether and it is safe to say that the dialogues and the overall presentation couldn't be compared with the almost consistent quality of the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Truth be told there were a number of established actors that Marvel didn't use as effective as they could but their track record allow them to have a couple of dips, and since this is Sony's first real attempt, you might want to cut them some slack but the mass consumers can be much more critical in the current climate of increasingly improving superhero films. They are still figuring out the formula which can be seen from the inconsistency of the tone and their approach as they stumbling to find the right balance between making fun of itself and the genre as a whole and taking themselves seriously.
Under much scrutiny, the most effective element of this iteration is the relationship between the Symbiote and Eddie Brock with their back and forth banter making the viewing experience that much more entertaining. The hardcore fans might not love the whole product since they take a lot of deviations away from Venom's origins and his close tie with the friendly neighborhood web-slinger but I particularly love how they bounce off of each other and how the extraterrestrial learn from the human host which become the backbone of the narrative they're going with. It is just disappointing everything that surround them do not contribute as much to make it a cohesive unit, with talents as talented as Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed are not used properly with just surface level storytelling with not a lot of depth, if any. As we build up the former journalist's character arc in handling this new parasite for the first half, the titular character materializes just at the right time for me as he is presented in his full glory of gory and chaos by mowing down bad guys and even subduing police force, certainly overshadowing the last handicapped portrayal in Spider-Man 3. I concur with the notion that going full R would serves the character better but it is still the best we've seen the Symbiote onscreen in awhile. If you are going in for a relentless alien going full-Venom on the bad guys (minus the blood of course), you will get your money's worth. Just don't expect the overall feature to be in the same level of what Marvel has been putting out.
I did not go in with my expectation high but despite not having much more meat on the bones, it is still an entertaining romp especially when the Symbiotes are being unleashed to wreak havoc just like how it's promised.
- IMDb - official - RT - wiki -
P.S. The first post-credit scene teases of what could be coming next but it depends on the success of this film definitely.
P.P.S. There is no clear tie-in with the Tom Holland's Spider-Man and MCU as a whole at all, just to be clear if you're confusing this film as another Marvel film. It is a Sony film with association with Marvel essentially.
P.P.P.S. Oh, even though the second post-credit scene is not at all related to Venom, it is actually something that I look forward to at the end of the year and got a sneak peek of it on the silver screen! This type of animation certainly looks the best on the biggest screen possible!
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