Venom

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)

Venom is getting a lot of hate so far, because critics on RottenTomatoes gave it an average rating of only 4.3, but on IMDB it's a rather satisfactory 7.0, so again it looks like the audience is mostly satisfied, only the critics are grumbling, but they always do when it's not a sophisticated drama, musical or cheap indie. Personally I wasn't expecting much, but Ruben Fleischer, director of Zombieland and Gangster Squad, has once again pleasantly surprised me. It's a shame it’s not R-rated, but it still looks pretty gritty and dark even without the blood. The opening half hour is slightly slower, but once Tom Hardy meets Venom (the scene in the lab is atmospherically horrific), the film becomes an action adrenaline ride to the end that doesn't let off the gas. Tom Hardy's performance is different than ever before and he's surprisingly very funny, and those who like the guy will like him even more after this. Venom's voice is also great and his looks are perfect. The action is great, even though it often takes place in the dark, it's still suspenseful, gritty enough and with decent cinematography. So my only criticisms are the mediocre villain and the rather underwhelming finale, but I had a great time and that's what comic-book movies are all about. Woody Harrelson as Carnage is going to be awesome. The theater was packed, I hope the film succeeds financially. 75% (10/04/2018)

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)

Hardy looked like a village idiot on the poster, but the poor guy also had to act like one in the film. For the first half of the movie, Brock is just a regular asshole who gets what he deserves and only later gains Hardy’s pleasant nature, which is boosted by a symbiote. The main problem with this film is the screenplay, which is full of holes and lots of the material also got cut out! Lapses in logic, characters with strange motivations and only a few good lines. Luckily, Fleischer concentrated on Venom himself, who is really cool, even though he’s a lot different than in the comic book. Even his baffling heroic behavior doesn’t present any problem. The action is decent, though it's a bit hard to follow – everything blends into the darkness (it must be awful in 3D) – and there’s not enough of it. Michelle Williams’ acting is plain bad and the evil Indian as a twisted variation on Elon Musk doesn’t have any ground to stand on in his transformation. Harlson and his ugly hairstyle are just funny more than anything else. There are too few jokes about eating people. The post-credits scene is asking for a fist to the face. We are not amused; we are disappointed. I want to feed! BEWARE: THIS ISN’T A MARVEL MOVIE, just a character bought from Marvel (and I hope that Sony gives it back soon). (10/10/2018)

Everything good about this movie is actually thanks to Tom Hardy. This Marvel movie would have ended up in the abyss of history without Tom Hardy and nobody would have ever remembered it. In this way, however, it’s a decent introduction of a new character of the Marvel universe, but it pays brutally for the naïve screenplay. While I accepted the fact that Venom is actually a distant cousin of the Goa'ulds from Stargate SG-1, I really struggled with accepting the simplicity of the screenplay, according to which the tired and disappointed Tom Hardy meets with his buddy Venom. Riz Ahmed isn’t a completely dignified adversary for Venom either; he’s rather an easy ticket into our world, which he surprisingly grew to like. Being a crazy scientist is quite a popular topic which doesn’t get old easily. What could get old are the typical tropes Marvel is already full of. Thankfully, Venom is strong because of Tom Hardy and even Venom himself understood that. And at least because of that I have a reason to look forward to the next installment. (10/08/2018)