Movie Review: Venom

This new comic-book movie plays it too safe

Rachael Jaeger
Staff Writer

When it comes to critiquing Venom, it is difficult to know where to start because it has more laughable moments than it does horror. The concept of an alien parasite living inside a human and teaming up with an alter ego stimulates both the hilarity and the horror. 

It is well-played with Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a journalist who investigates Life Foundation because of its organizer Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Drake sacrifices innocent people in dealing with alien specimens who live inside humans once they are exposed to each other.

Ultimately Eddie loses his job because he asks too many questions and puts together a news coverage without any evidence or facts.

Despite that as of Monday, according to Gamespot, Venom set the new box record. It was not the greatest superhero movie made. One aspect I also disliked is that for a while, Venom shed poor light on Anne Weying (Michelle Williams).

First of all, she put coffee in his hand the minute he was awake and other behaviors gave an impression that she picked up after him. Then she acted out of the character she portrayed and deserted him and almost instantly, dive into a new relationship.  

I am not going to say I didn’t enjoy Venom because I did. In contrast to other reviews I read, I thought Venom kicked off well when it showed Eddie losing literally everything that he had, the nice apartment he lived and his considerate girlfriend Anne.

Eddie also made it a ritual to take a trip to the local rundown gas station where Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) took him aside and promised she would sneak him into the Life Foundation lab to acquire the evidence he could use to take back his position as a journalist. I also love especially when Eddie gets more familiar with Venom and teams with him when they are on the run from Carlton.

Venom not only spurs Eddie to action, but he also encourages Eddie not to give up on Anne, especially after an interaction between them when Venom states in a humorous tone, “I like her!” 

As for as the technical aspects go, CGI, has become prominent in most modern films and it is hit-or-miss in Venom, but when it is shown it feels out of place because it is too much.

Like in the scene when Venom and the other alien battle it out, the shots cutting between them were so fast that you couldn’t tell what alien parasite was which. When you visually cannot keep up with the graphics, it is a problem since your vision is what enables you to enjoy cinema.

That scene and others like it, scattered throughout the film were like reading a book with such a choppy sentence that it is more work to figure out what the writer is saying than it is to follow along with the storyline. 

I understand that superheroes/antiheroes are the recent film hype and especially the goal of the anti-hero movies is to challenge the hidden corrupt systems. At the same time, because so many movies are like that now, as the saying goes, they are a dime a dozen.

It is difficult to dig from the grime and discover a penny that maintains its shine in contrast from to a coin already rusted. 

Feature photo courtesy of the Associated Press.