Venom

There’s been a lot of negative reviews for Venom, the new comic book film based off of the villain of Spider-Man, but is it as bad as everyone is saying? NO, YOU’RE ALL WRONG IT’S A MASTERPIECE!!!

Who am I kidding, it’s bad, like really bad. Read on a find out why.

Venom follows Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who’s trying to take down the head of the Life Foundation, Carlton Drake. While investigating one of Drake’s experiments, Eddie’s body merges with an alien symbiote – Venom - leaving him with superhuman powers and a twisted alter ego.

The film was produced by Sony who have had a bit of trouble with making Spider-Man films over the last few years. With Spider-Man now semi back with Marvel Studios, the company have now gone down the route of making money from the villains of the superhero instead. Now producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach have had a boner for the character of Venom for a long time, trying to greenlight a movie since the 90’s and shoe horning him into Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 despite the director’s doubts. I’m going to assume that the producers are like most people who say they “like” Venom but they don’t actually know that much about the character - instead just like how cool he looks. Personally, I don’t think Venom is that good of a character, I find him quite boring. His origin is pretty cool and is well done in the Raimi films but overall he’s not that interesting. He’s just a bit of a zombie Spider-Man and it wasn’t until recent times in the comics with new hosts that his stories became less repetitive. So, as you can imagine, I’ve not been that excited for this film.

Despite my lack of excitement for the character or the film, my interest was piqued by the cast. Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock/Venom, he’s joined by Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed and Jenny Slate. That’s a pretty stellar cast and if you’re into your films you might be suckered into thinking that there must be something in Venom that grabbed these high-class actors’ interest. Well let’s just say there must have been a lot of money on the table for this one… Michelle Williams especially looks like she’s so bored with the film and her chemistry with Tom Hardy is so non-existent. It’s uncomfortable to watch. Only Tom Hardy looks like he’s having any fun with character and you can tell that he definitely puts his all into the character - it’s enjoyable to watch and despite the lack of comic book accuracy to the Eddie Brock character. He is actually a solid choice and it would be good to see in a more thought out film. I don’t blame the cast, they all have done and will do better.

So, the film is bad you get that but unfortunately, it’s not even one of those films that’s so bad it’s good. The whole thing just feels so uninspired and dull: the story is choppy and the heroes/villains seem to have little to no motivation for their actions. It takes way too long for Venom to actually come into play and although the film perks up a little when he does, the character just feels messy and incomplete. His powers are all over the place and his changing intentions come out of nowhere. The film feels like it was made in the early noughties, when studios weren’t as sold on superhero films and we got dumps like Daredevil and Catwoman. This film even comes complete with dodgy CGI and messy visuals that disorientate you during action scenes. It’s crazy to think that the producers - having wanted this film made since the 90’s - did not give any reason as to why this film should be made other that it being a cash grab for the suckers who think Venom looks cool and believe they’re in for a more adult take on the character. It’s dark alright but I’m talking more in terms of the lighting.

This film frustrates me because it feels like uninspired and lazy filmmaking personified. No offence to the crew that no doubt worked their butts off to try and make something out of this but it was tainted from the get go. I think it deserves this scathing review because it gives superhero films a bad name. When made with love and effort superhero films can soar - look at Black Panther - but when these films are made with no other thought than greed, well they look like Venom. As a fan of comic books and Spider-Man in particular, I should be the prime target for this film; but I couldn’t care less. I also really don’t care for the Spider-Man Villain universe without Spider-Man that Sony are trying to set up, leave the characters alone.

Venom is not a film, it’s a product. A product that looks cool but when you bite into it, it’s mouldy and makes you ill. So yeah, I’m rating it a 1.5/5. Give it a miss.

So what did you think of the film? Am I right or am I wrong? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Is Spider-Man 3 Actually Good?

I’ve been back and forth Spider-Man 3 since it came out. As a child, I loved it and it was one of the first films I eagerly anticipated and saw on the day of its release. Since then, I’ve taken in its criticisms and come to disregard it as one of the first missteps in Spider-Man’s cinematic journey, but what if I was wrong?

It’s been a few years since I’ve seen it and upon revisiting it I’ve come to believe that maybe we’ve giving this one a bit of a hard time. Now that’s not to say that there isn’t anything bad, there’s some definite strange choices made throughout and unfortunately, they seem to have detracted from the good, and do you know what, there is a lot of good stuff in this film. I would argue that at least the first hour of this film is pretty amazing, the setup of the characters, the darker side of Peter Parker before the symbiote even bonds with him, when his pride and selfishness takes over and the incredible visuals that show and not tell the story. Any change from source material is made to inform the main character who in turn informs the story, like Gwen Stacy being smart, successful and having a caring Father is everything MJ wants, making her the perfect unknowing antagonist, and it surprisingly works really well.

Talking of MJ, I always used to think her character was really annoying in this film when I was younger. However, having now grown up a bit, I think that most of her actions are justified, she’s a woman who wants more from life than to be Spider-Man’s girlfriend, she needs something independent to that, something that Peter isn’t helping her with. And although this aspect is not concluded, it does add some depth to her character.

Now obviously, the emo styling and dance scenes are a weird choice but an argument could be made that they are Parker’s own dorky version of what he thinks is cool, either way it’s still odd. Ultimately, it’s Venom that doesn’t work, he’s shoehorned in and should either be given more time or just set aside for Sandman who, along with Harry Osborn, bring some emotion to the core of the story. And I’ve got to say, Pete and Harry fighting alongside each other at the end brings a great smile to my face as that storyline is resolved.

Overall though, I think it’s time for people to re-visit this one, it’s a smart, pulpy, energetic and a high stakes conclusion to a brilliant trilogy that I wish never concluded. There’s no denying it’s the weakest of the trilogy but each film has been about Peter Parker, building on his character and making it interesting to watch and develop even past his origin story and this one is no different. This is something hopefully that’s Marvel Studios will bring along to their own solo outings for the superhero. Man, I wish we were on Raimi’s Spider-Man 6.

I'm  sure not everybody will feel this way, so let me know what you think of Spider-Man 3 in the comments below.

Can we all agree though that we don’t want a Venom solo movie? 

Thanks for reading!