Venom

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Journalist Eddie Brock (played by Tom Hardy) investigates allegations against billionaire Carlton Drake (played Riz Ahmed) after a debacle involving a rocket crashing from space. This leads to the discovery of alien symbiotes, one of which bonds with Brock, turning him into the anti-hero known as Venom. Venom was one of the movies I was anticipating the most this year. Is this movie great? No, it really isn't. To be honest, I'm not even sure that I can say it's even that good. However, I can say that, for the most part, I enjoyed it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that I think they truly nailed Venom. I liked the back and forth between Eddie and the symbiote. That's one of the things about Venom that has be done right. Essentially the relationship between the two should be mutually beneficial, and it actually was. I also kind of like that, while they don't make Eddie Brock unlikable, they also don't necessarily make him the nicest guy either. I also liked Michelle Williams as Anne Weying. I'll be up front and honest, I don't really know that much about Anne Weying or She-Venom. I know she's a character (and that Anne even gets to have a brief sort of She-Venom moment in the movie) and that's about it. I also liked Riot's design, even though he is admittedly another character I really know next nothing about. But, the post-credits scene actually got me hyped for the sequel (this movie made over $600,000,000 at the box office, so Venom 2 is kind of inevitable). I also kind of liked the sense of humor in the movie. At times, it could be a little bit goofy. However, there is something of a darker underlying edge to it. Some of the bickering that happens between Eddie and Venom in the movie is about who Venom can and cannot eat. However, that unfortunately leads into the problems I have with this movie. While I liked the darker sense of humor, I kind of felt like they struggled to find a good balanced tone. There are points where something legitimately horrific can happen, and then it cuts to a dark joke. The two tones don't mesh as well as they should. The action sequences are something of a mixed bag. Sometimes they're legitimately fun to watch. Other times, it's honestly kind of difficult to make out what's going on. I was fine with most of the acting in the movie. Jenny Slate's performance stood out like a sore thumb. I couldn't help but think she was seriously miscast. I don't know, she just felt off to me. But, this movie's biggest hinderance is the PG-13 rating. Now, they didn't do a terrible job with a PG-13 Venom movie. However, I still think Venom would have lended himself much more to an R rating. I think it could have actually made some of the more horror-esque moments more effective. They also had Venom bite people's heads off in this movie. Why have that if you're just going to neuter those moments down. All in all, I enjoyed Venom on something of a guilty pleasure level despite all of its glaring flaws.

6 / 10