Venom

I would like to say that in places Tom Hardy acts as poorly as Ben Affleck in Daredevil or Edward Norton in The Incredible Hulk, but that wouldn't be true. His performance is much closer to Nicolas Cage in Ghost Rider. In places it’s so bad that it's fun. I really wasn't sure if Hardy was grimacing because it's supposed to be funny, or because it's supposed to be serious (but in doing so, it's just inadvertently funny). The film is not terrible, but it is no gem either. I didn't mind at all, for example, that it didn't splash blood and heads were not flying, I much prefer it when filmmakers work with hints. The action scenes were quite solid (especially the one with the tactical unit) and the villain was also decent. Worse, however, was that everything in Venom seemed terribly hurried, and when the “grand finale" came, I almost didn't recognize it. (10/06/2018)

One of Marvel's most interesting characters finally made it to the silver screen, but it deserved a better story, a little better execution, and overall better care. Such an entertaining, strong and hard-nosed antihero could have been handled much better than waiting a third of the film, getting to know him a third and then lurking in front of a green screen for a while. Hardy does a decent job in the role of a weird journalist, but his digital counterpart is considerably worse. Boring. 20 minutes in, and you know how it's going to end, and of course there's going to be a final battle, because you usually can't do without that in comic book adaptations these days. So predictable. (01/07/2019)

To begin with, I certainly acknowledge the fury of the viewers who are comic-book fans and have a tendency to whine whenever their favourite hero in a film picks their nose with the wrong hand. The PG13 rating is of course a big punch in the dick of everyone with a long relationship with Venom, and I certainly understand that a buddy comedy doesn’t fit well with horror with a cosmic parasite, but whatever. Fortunately, I was able to accept the fact that this would not be about fate, thick atmosphere and stylish kills, so I dulled my brain and had great fun. I don’t agree at all with the opinions that the beginning is slower than a week at school. On the contrary, the pace is nice, the humour is not toe-curling, Hardy is great from the start and it was nice for a change to see a pure and unpretentious comic-book flick not overwhelmed with CGI sets or dozens of characters. Surely, I could probably point out to the oversimplification of the relationships between the characters or the continuity of the twists (it’s clear that they cut out a lot), but I was all the more impressed that even on this lighter and more straightforward level, the film works just fine, clearly fleshes out the characters' motives and just doesn't bore. The interaction between Venom and Eddie is a prank that the creators deliver well and at the right moments – and a lot of the credit goes to the excellent Hardy, whom I like a bit more now, and honestly I can think of only one other actor who would entertain me so much with his lively performance in every film, Jack Nicholson he’s called (though I don’t want to compare, no way). 70%, and I’m taking down a star after some time, it’s not that well executed and unfortunately, it’s not bad enough to be worthy of a guilty 4*. (10/08/2018)

Following on from conflicting mixed reviews, I didn’t expect much, and in the end, Venom is just sort of OK – which slightly irritates me because this film could have been much better. This is due in part to the limits of a PG-13 certificate, so scenes intended to be gory are either cut so that you can’t see the gore, or made in a ridiculous way of not showing blood (for example, a symbiote turns its limbs into sharp blades, but does not slice up their opponents; instead he throws them on the side). The plot is nothing new – it’s a relatively engaging origin story with, unfortunately, a completely generic and uninteresting villain played by Riz Ahmed. At times, the logic is lost, like when Venom tells Eddie that he was in his head and knows everything about him, but then five minutes later he asks who Anne is. Paradoxically, the film works best as a comedy with Tom Hardy humorously muttering and fooling around, which is a fail if Venom is intended as a darker film – because it isn’t. (01/09/2019)

Tom Hardy has a problem, an alien parasite has attached itself to him and wants to start eating people, but there are some worse monsters out there, so Eddie Brock and Venom decide to join forces and become the most ordinary of superheroes. Venom manages to adapt a potentially interesting and darker character into a jaded hero who looks like a relic of the past and could have captured the attention of maybe twelve years ago. I don't really know what to praise about it, even the best elements of it are mediocre at best. (10/05/2018)