David Pierdomenico
Back in 2015 when Sony and Marvel Studios were finally able to come to an agreement, the former ensured to leave themselves with partial rights so that films like Venom would be possible. There’s plenty of lore and mythos left in the Spiderman universe that they didn’t want to give up. Couple that with the sheer popularity of Venom’s character, as well his subpar appearance Spiderman 3, and it makes sense that Sony would make a film about him. That said, whenever there’s talk of a solo villain film, Halle Berry’s Catwoman comes to mind. And while Venom is miles better than that cinematic atrocity, it still leaves a great deal to be wanted.
The Unlikeable Underdog
It’s clear from the very beginning that the film wants us to root for Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy). He’s a no holds barred investigative journalist who goes after the corrupt and exposes them and their vile deeds. We’re shown a brief montage of this before he gets an interview with Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Despite being expressly told by his boss to use kid gloves, Brock asks questions about scandals and cover ups and promptly gets himself fired, loses his engagement with Anne (Michelle Williams), and ultimately becomes a loser. It’s only six months after this that he’s approached by Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), who works for Drake and is concerned with what he’s doing. Honestly, it feels like a lot of runtime is spent before Brock is even attached to Venom, and the film sort of rushes to the ending from there.
That’s the least of the film’s initial concerns though. It’s very difficult to sympathize with Brock when his own idiotic actions led him to it. He had noble intentions to expose Drake’s unethical and possibly illegal actions, but he has no ounce of subtlety, something the entire film seems to lack. When most investigative journalists do an interview that may get difficult, they usually ease their way into the real questions they want to ask, and word them very carefully to try and prove their point, but also keep the interviewee there. Brock jumps from “So tell me about your rocket program” to “Tell me about how you’re recruiting poor people and giving them cancer as a side effect and covering it all up”. It’s quite clear that the screenwriter has zero journalistic experience and probably watched an episode of The Newsroom for research.
And it doesn’t end there. When Anne breaks up with him she just gives him the ring and mildly scolds him in the street. One would think that their breakup should be a more emotional and dramatic event, but it’s treated as almost an afterthought. In fact the entire opening sequence before the six month time jump could have easily been removed. We could have been introduced to Brock as an already unemployed loser and established that Anne is his ex that he’s still in love with. But by showing us how it all happened, it makes him very unlikeable from the beginning. And the whole point of the film is for us to root for him and feel empowered as he does when he bonds with the symbiote and finally becomes powerful.
Inconsistent Tone
All during production, there were rumors that Venom would be set in the same universe as the MCU. It’s since been revealed that it is in fact not. But the prevalence of that financial juggernaut left Sony in an unsure position; which completely explains this film’s tonal issues. Everything from the opening, to the brutal and dimly lit action suggests the film is trying to take itself very seriously in a dark and gritty manner, much like the standard was in the early 2000’s, before the debut of Iron Man and the rest of the MCU. But then, once we meet Venom himself, he’s full of lighthearted jokes/banter and seems like something out of Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy. Either of these tones are fine, so long as the film stays consistent with it. Otherwise, it all seems very jarring.
The Film We Didn’t Get to See
By far, the best scenes in the film are when Venom is running rampant. The CGI could be better. While it still doesn’t look as bad as Cyborg in Justice League, it looks like it needed one more round of rendering. The great shame is that we don’t get very much of this. Tom Hardy himself admitted that his favorite 40 minutes of footage was cut out in editing. This could also explain part of the film’s tone problem. Venom seems so out of place because we don’t get very much development or time with him. The film focuses so much on showing Brock being an idiot and losing his career, that it forgets that Venom is an equally important character that needs development.
Perhaps they’ll release an extended cut that feels like a more complete film, but it shouldn’t take that for audiences to see everything. Venom has been a highly anticipated film for years, ever since the character was butchered in Spiderman 3. And while this film gets Venom himself slightly better, it’s an overall mess of everything else. It lacks development for certain key characters, has plot points that go nowhere, and feels like we’re watching a DVD that skipped a few scenes in the middle. If this is an indicator of what Sony will do on their own, then perhaps Venom would be better off in the hands of Marvel too.
