For those not familiar with my “H8 Spoiler Reviews”, they are designed to briefly share my opinion, while avoiding giving much about the movie away. So here is my brief review of Venom.
I went into this movie with very low expectations. After hearing Sony was going to do a Venom movie without Spider-man, I thought that the movie would be a failure . So I was ready to give it a low rating before I even walked in the door.
So having seen the movie, I will admit that it managed to hold my attention the entire movie. I wasn’t reaching for my phone, or felt like I was robbed of my money. The movie had some moments of humor. And they tried to build a story around the symbiotes. With them setting it in San Francisco, it can be a movie that is its own separate movie, but can make references and drop Easter eggs.
With all that said, this movie was not as bad as I expected. But then I expected Fantastic Four and Inhumans kind of bad, actually worse. This movie just slightly hovered above them, but barely. It’s clear that a Venom movie just do not work without Spider-man, and Sony wasn’t able to do this with this movie.
Tom Hardy, as Eddy Brock, tries to do what he can with the character. It’s just he can not overcome a bad plot, poor writing, and just a poor overall movie. The main crowd going out to see this movie are fans of the Venom character. They may not know every detail about the character, but they know enough. And they will see this movie and feel like the story was butchered.
If you are a fan of the character, I know you’re going to see this movie no matter what (for the sake of curiosity). You may get a few laughs from the film, and you may walk out feeling life it wasn’t as bad as you thought. But I doubt you’re going to want Sony to continue with this with a sequel.
At best, this movie is something you catch on Netflix. But if you just “have to see it for yourself”, like I did. Do yourself a favor and catch it at the cheapest ticket price possible. And avoid the fancy movie theater. Save the fancy theater and weekend night out for another movie.
Personally, I thought Sony could have made this movie worked if they went the Agent Venom route. Set the movie around a soldier who lost his legs in combat. Show the character dealing with all the issues of depressions, PSD, and his world crumbling around him. Then he find this symbiote, and through the bond with an alien creature he become the anti-hero. They can follow the movie up with a space adventure, and build their own universe where Spider-man does not have to be mentioned. They could drop some Easter eggs by having the symbiote make quick reference to his “past relationships with humans”. And leave it at that.
But this shows that Sony really do not have a plan or clue what they are doing with this property. They should just leave it in the hands of Marvel, before they try and do another “sinister six (Amazing Spider-man 2)” movie.
To note: There are two post-credit scenes.
