Venom - Film Review

‘Venom’ is directed by Ruben Fleischer and stars Tom Hardy as the famous Spiderman villain, as well as Michelle Williams, and Riz Ahmed and is centred around a well renowned reporter called Eddie Brock who becomes bonded with an symbiote called venom. The film follows their friendship and mis-adventures around San Fransisco. Ton Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom is definitely a bright spot in the film. His performance is very charismatic and charming. The relationship between Eddie and Venom is most definitely the best part of the movie. The films comedy entirely comes out of their bond. It rides the edge of what is intentionally and unintentionally funny, making you uncertain about jokes in the film that may have been on the nose jabs or just a mistake. This is something that intrigued me, and the uncertainty was rewarding in the long run. Michelle Williams and Riz Ahmed, while doing a fine job, are on a completely different page to Tom Hardy, in terms of their dialogue and acting. Which may have been a fault of Fleischers direction or the different movie Sony wanted to make. This lack of direction isn’t only prevalent with the actors; the tone seems to be wildly out of sync with the serious tones in the first 50 minutes (which matches the trailers) and then the wacky tone of Venom and Eddies adventure, which takes a very comedic and goofy tone. This was definitely the most effective tone that should have stayed consistent with the entire movie as it was the most enjoyable and what saved this movie from being a complete disaster. Carlton Drake/Riot as the lead villain was written and characterised so poorly. The final third act battle was so dreadful in the worst ways. It came so abruptly and the fight itself was extremely hard to see what was happening. It was abysmal. Aside from all that, this film would have benefited massively from an R rating. We see Venom bite people’s heads off, but there is zero blood and it feels so tame. ‘Venom’ is an extremely enjoyable and funny movie with two clashing tones, an abysmal third act battle, a villain which is much too dull, and Tom Hardy as both Eddie and venom doing a great job. It’s a mixed bag, but the positives are enough to save this movie as an enjoyable, wacky and weird adventure. ‘Venom’ - 64%