Venom ** (2018, Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate) – Movie Review

Casting good actors in a Marvel movie might seem like a good idea, but no acting is required in Venom (2018), just the ability to be there, run around, look tragic and, above all, look right. In the case of the lead actor, having a sense of fun and being able to raise laughs is essential, in the way that Ryan Reynolds lights up Deadpool. There in that film, the script is funny and he’s a funny guy.

A few laughs apart, Venom’s script goes the route of being deadly serious, which also can mean deadly dull. This gives Tom Hardy a major problem. The laughs aren’t there in the first place and Hardy is a very serious actor, so he is no fun as rogue TV investigative reporter Eddie Brock or his alter-ego Venom, though he has all the other aforementioned abilities – to be there, run around, look tragic and, above all, look right. He does act his way through it, and out of it, and gives it his all, and that may be enough for his many fans.

The plot in the screen story and screenplay by Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, based on the Marvel comics by Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie, is thin for a major movie. Blobby thing comes to Earth, is picked up by wicked scientist Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who is developing the idea of shoving blobby things into humans at the Life Foundation, with the help of Dr Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), who betrays him.

Eddie Brock investigates the Life Foundation and ends up consumed by the blobby thing virus, thus acquires the powers of a slobbering symbiote, and seems to transfer randomly or at will into Venom, at will in order to save his own life or that of others, obviously going on to be a clean up the streets of scum kind of guy by the end of the movie. Not only has Eddie got incredible new powers, he has a voice in his head telling him to embrace the darkness. He is anti-hero for our dark times.

There is also boring love interest built in concerning Brock’s girlfriend/ fiancée Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), who, when trouble occurs, dumps Brock in favour of nice but dull Dr Dan Lewis (Reid Scott). This doesn’t make you like Anne Weying very much. She is just into Brock for the good times. What does he see in her?

Getting back to the casting, Ahmed and Williams are good actors, brilliant in the right role, but here miscast. Ahmed looks way too young and insignificant. The wicked scientist Carlton Drake needs a show-boating performance, and much moustache twiddling. An actor like Willem Dafoe was in Spider-Man could bring all the needed authority and quirky appeal. Williams seems lost and has no chemistry with Hardy. An actress like Kirsten Dunst (also from Spider-Man) might have done the trick.

So, with the cast and script needing a major overhaul, what’s left is a lot of fairly violent, slightly sweary, CGI-led action. Some of this is exciting. The dark, doomy tone is admirable. It works well as an Alien-style sci-fi horror movie. The CGI is good, but there is way, way too much of it. The movie is slick, sharply edited, fast paced and painless. It’s all over very quickly – too quickly. It feels short for a blockbuster, and there may be a better version of it, after we hear that Tom Hardy says his favourite 40 minutes were cut from Venom.

Maybe let’s await the DVD version then, though this is the kind of movie you really need to see in the cinema, as its visual appeal is its main attraction. Certainly the slobbering symbiote commands attention.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Movie Review

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