Ryan Shoots First: Venom
I can honestly say I was not expecting what I got out of Venom. I can be accused of getting overly hyped for movies. I love movie trailers and am pretty much down for anything. Leading up to Venom I felt nothing, even worse than nothing I felt anger and disappointment. I grew up in the 90’s a project of Fox Kids Marvel cartoons block and chief of which was Spider-Man. I was at the perfect age to fall for that show then coupled with Todd McFarlane’s run in the Spidey comics Venom quickly became my favorite member of Spidey’s Rouge Gallery. He had the look, the cool factor and enough backstory tied to Spidey and Peter to make him a perfect foil. Then to eventually become a reluctant ally. So when the Venom movie was announced to not have anything to do with Spider-Man it didn’t make any sense to me. It would be crazy, that would be like making a Joker movie without Batman….(yes I know). I mean even the awful Topher Grace Venom from Spider-Man 3 had Spidey! Still, I held out hope and then the trailer came out. It looked tonally confusing and it looked like the dark times of the early 2000’s when we were getting the Daredevil and Catwoman’s of comic book movies. I did think the look of Venom was cool but once he said: “like a turd in the wind” in the trailer my mind went blank.
Well after seeing the movie, Venom is tonally confusing and looks like the dark times of the early 2000’s comic book movies… But I’ll be damned if it doesn’t know it and play it to a T to the point that it’s an “ugly child love” kinda movie. And it is in very large part to the work of Tom Hardy. When he was announced as the role I thought “why?” not that he would not be great in the role but why would he take it? He must have seen something even the director didn’t see because he takes this movie out of the Hot garbage and puts it into the Good garbage. Reports from the set say he was regularly improving not just lines but action beats and character moments. I’ve seen others describe this movie as a buddy cop/rom-com between Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and Hardy’s portrayal of Venom, yes I was surprised to learn Hardy does the voice of Venom as well. Their back and forth, the way they interact really sells the idea of a symbiotic relationship and they drive the movie while everything else around them falls apart. Michelle Williams, another “why would she” casting isn’t awful but doesn’t have much to do and sports a pretty blatantly bad wig. The main “villain” Carlton Drake is a Elon-Musk stand-in played by Riz Ahmed, his character is flat, useless and does not take advantage of Ahmed’s strengths. Watching the film and imagine it existing with anyone but Hardy controlling 80% of the film puts it all in perspective. Similar to Deadpool in a way that anyone but Ryan Reynolds and that movie just does not work like it did and much of what it tries to do just falls flat. Many were turned off by the movie not having an R rating but I didn’t notice it and thought what the movie was trying to do worked fine with a PG-13 rating. Of course, there are already rumors of an “Unrated” Blu-Ray in the works.
Whether fair or not while watching the film I was thinking about my review and thinking “This film is right down our reader’s alley”. Venom contains a few moments that are out there and quirky enough to be scenes of the week and the premise is so outlandish but somewhat well executed it could develop a cult following. I know saying a movie in the year 2018 will be divisive is a cliche as it gets but there will be a large contingent of people who love this movie. Who are in on the joke and will maintain that it is flawed but just on the fringe enough to validate itself. Then there will be others that will put it right next to Catwoman and Elektra with some of the darkest moments in Comic book movies. It will be interesting to see how it holds up, was it my low expectations? Will all the work Hardy is putting in last or will it fade and all the negatives wear on over time? It remains to be seen but for the 2 plus hours I sat in the theater I was entertained and saw one of my childhood favorite comic characters be exceptionally true to the 90’s comic look and eat people with his large tongue waving around. I didn’t give Venom much of a shot but I was pleasantly surprised and I can’t promise you will enjoy it but it may be worth a shot, like a polished turd… In the wind.
