I’m gonna be straight up honest with y’all. Venom is one of my favorite characters when it comes to the Marvel Comics, and for those of you who don’t know, Venom is not part of the MCU. Venom is own by Sony, and Sony hasn’t done the best with their Marvel films. Usually they just make the movies to keep the rights. One example, is the (2015) Fantastic Four Movie. That movie was…That’s a post for another time. The point is, is that the film was a huge failure. I believe they only created it so they could keep the rights, but the film was staggered, didn’t make much sense, and was lousy writing. To be honest, I was worried that Venom was going to be the same. How I felt, was that I wanted the movie to be good, but from my experience with Sony, I was expecting not the best results. Was I disappointed? Let’s find out!
No. The film, in my opinion was an interesting and well-done take on Venom. Now, I did think the writing wasn’t the greatest, but for a Sony movie, I thought it was good. In the beginning of the film, it’s very staggered. You got five different things happening at once and they’re rushing through it. They needed to slow down, and take their time. Marvel Studios is great at this. They know when to bring action and when to release the plot lines. Sony doesn’t and didn’t execute that very well. That being said though, with the character Eddie Brock (played by Tom Hardy) finally merges with the symbiote, known as Venom (also played by Tom Hardy), I believe the movie picks up. Venom’s character is hilarious as the movie goes on. In the film, Venom is talking to Eddie Brock, and it’s fantastic watching Tom Hardy’s character figure this situation out.
Venom in the comics isn’t really a bad guy, as much as he is, as the trailer puts it, Anti-Hero. Venom in this film, is clearly a bad guy, but Eddie Brock isn’t. This relationship is great as the movie goes on. Venom is constantly trying to eat people in the show, specifically their heads, and Eddie is always trying to stop Venom from doing this. At the end of the film, he makes a deal with Venom to only eat bad guys, which Venom agrees too.
The bad guy in this film, known as Carlton Drake (played by Riz Ahmed), is an interesting character. He was one of the characters I felt like was rushed in the beginning of the show, and I didn’t really get a good vibe from him as a bad guy. More as a snobby teenager. I felt like a lot of his lines were a little cheesy, but I did appreciate the role they were trying to aim it towards. I think it was poor writing just in general too.
I had a hard time with several of the lines in the movie. They seemed forced and unnecessary. For instance, there’s a part where Eddie Brock gets separated from Venom, and when Venom finally emerges and they bond again, Eddie asks why he came back. Venom gives an excuse, and Eddie tells him to tell the truth. Venom says that the reason that he came back was for Eddie. This line in writing I might could see work, but in the movie, it just didn’t seem to flow well. Another poor written part in the script, was when he met his ex-fiance, Anne Weying (played by Michelle Williams), at the restaurant. She clearly doesn’t trust him, but is concern for him. Not ten minutes later in the film though she’s calling him and definitely trusting him. Again, I don’t think this was Michelle Williams fault, but the writers. It was a little sloppy in my opinion.
Now let’s talk about more about the main bad guy. Not Carlton Drake, but Riot. Riot was a pretty cool character in this film. I like his darkness and presence in the film. I wasn’t sure in the beginning if they were going to bring Carnage (which we’ll talk about) or another symbiote to the party. I think Riot was a good choice. I think bringing Carnage to the first Venom film would have been a bit much. Carnage is an offspring from Venom. To make that all happen in the film would have been a little crazy to me, but let’s not stray from Riot. Riot is actually a character I’ll have a separate post for in the future. Riot’s ferociousness in the film was well played and I loved how they showed him moving from host to host as the movie went on. It made me feel like something crazy was gonna happen. Now, it did happen for a little too long, but it wasn’t enough that I cared about it. I think Riot was a good choice for this film.
And of course, you can’t have a good Marvel film without Stanley’s cameo. 🙂
The final thing I wanted to talk about was the after credit scene. After the credits roll, it shows Eddie Brock driving up to a prison. As he’s doing so, he’s talking to Venom. He goes into the prison to do an interview, and he starts talking to a prisoner there (played by Woody Harrelson). At the end of the clip the prisoner says, “When I get out of here, and I will…there’s gonna be carnage.” End scene. This definitely means we’re getting a sequel people! Well, at-least I hope we do. The Carnage and Venom relationship is epic to me. Venom is such a bad**s and Carnage is such a b***h. Not only that though, but it looks like Carnage will be played by Woody Harrelson. I think this could be a really good match up for the Sony, Marvel universe, and when the contract that Sony and Marvel Stuidos has expires, maybe they’ll bring Spider Man in the mix too. I don’t know what to say now, but I’m very excited about the next Venom film to come out. I think this movie was a good starter, but I feel like the sequel is gonna be the one everyone will want to go see. Maybe not, maybe so. We’ll have to wait and see.
So, in the end, would I buy this movie? My answer would be no. I would rent it, but I wouldn’t buy it. The beginning of the movie was to disorganize for me to get behind, but it did begin to grab a hold of itself and begin to take shape half way through. It’s a close call, but I would have to say rent, instead of buying. I’m gonna wait for the sequel. With Venom and Carnage, I can’t wait to see it!
Jmanthoughts 
Pretty cool man.
LikeLike