Venom – A Spoiler Free Review

Venom is Sony’s latest venture into making Marvel movies that aren’t associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They’ve apparently got around 900 characters to work with, and the first one out of the box is our favourite Symbiote.

We’re diving in for a spoiler free review right now, but don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Venom got a lot of hype due to the brilliant cast but a lot of people were hesitant because Venom’s deck seemed to be stacked against it: Kevin Feige (Marvel) and Amy Pascal (Sony) disagreed about whether Venom would fit into the MCU, Tom Holland was rumoured for months to be in the movie but never confirmed, and lastly, it was confirmed that it would NOT be R-rated.

Technically speaking

We at BTG Lifestyle weren’t exactly sold on the CGI in the trailer but we know very well that they can fix it in post – and apparently they did. It was way better than expected, and with so many gooey (is that the right word?) Symbiotes in the film enveloping people’s bodies, there was a risk that it would look out of place. But it pulled it off quite nicely.

The fight scenes also ran the risk of having things that just smash into each other, but it was actually well choreographed, including the climactic scene. For the most part, the CGI was seamless which is always a good thing.

The characters

Let’s just say one thing: Venom was its own character. Yes he has to assume a host body but even when he is in Eddie Brock’s head he isn’t Eddie’s sub conscious – he IS Venom. He is conscious of where he came from, he speaks to Eddie like he’s someone else who happens to occupy space in his head. I loved this and the constant duality and bickering between the two of them inside his own head made for some hilarious scenes.

Carlton Drake was ruthless. I’ve been a fan of Riz Ahmed his since Nightcrawler and he was brilliant in The Night Of as well but I never thought he could be as villainous and imposing as what the role needed him to be. There were moments of general likeability and moments where you couldn’t believe how cold he was.

Tom Hardy was excellent too, but we know this. He was great as Eddie Brock, the no-nonsense investigative reporter who has his world collapse very quickly around him. Anne – the love interest was really nothing more than that. I really wanted more from her character, especially since Michelle Williams was cast but hopefully her role will be expanded in a sequel.

The story

Anyone who knows anything about Eddie Brock and Venom knows that he exists because of Peter Parker and Spiderman. However, there were issues around licensing and character ownership and who fits into what universe because of X rules that people made up – blah blah blah. Short answer: this is a different origins story to the one we’re accustomed to.

Eddie Brock is already in San Francisco and his past in New York is alluded to, but it’s not the focus. We see him being relatively successful and really happy, but his ambitions get the best of him and after an encounter with the villain he loses everything. Classic tale of fall and rise but he is really the underdog throughout the whole film, which adds so much stakes and balances everything out quite nicely.

The Venom character is also quite violent, but this film is not R-rated so there is a lot of cutting away. Personally I think it would have been a risk worth taking especially because of Fox’s success with Deadpool and Logan, but Sony aimed to play it safe, and it wasn’t terrible, but it could have been SO much better.

The verdict

Venom hype was infectious and even though the critics will tell you it was shit, we’re telling you it wasn’t bad at all. It was actually quite good for a fun superhero villain with so much stacked against it.

It gets a 7/10 from us.

 

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