There is only one anti-hero movie franchise that is doing well these days. This character comes from the Marvel comics, he’s hilarious and he’s not called Venom. His first movie in 2016 was so good it set an incredibly high bar for the sequel that released earlier this year. You know his name.
Now, going by the reputation of Marvel comic characters, it would have been impossible to think that Deadpool would get a better debut film than the much-admired Venom. Yet, that is where we are right now. Venom, a character with so much potential, is ruined by a run-of-the-mill origin story. Venom last appeared in Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man 3, remember?
Venom is a Spider-Man spin-off without any mention of the web-slinger, because of a temporary deal between Disney and Sony Pictures to include him in the Avengers. We would have to draw out an entire chart to explain who owns which Marvel characters’ movie rights, but for now, all you need to know is that Sony owns the rights to Spider-Man and his villains. Which means that once the Disney contract expires, we might get to see Spidey and Venom face-off in the future.
Getting back to the movie, Venom is an symbiotic alien that is brought to Earth, along with a few others of its kind, by conniving billionaire Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). They conduct human tests with the symbiotes to see whether the alien planet is habitable. But the symbiotes have other plans, namely invade Earth to take control of humans as hosts.
As per the comics, the creature first takes possession of Peter Parker, before transferring to its more prominent host, journalist Eddie Brock, but in this story, there is only Eddie (Tom Hardy). Once Venom enters Eddie, the two learn to live with each other as both stand to gain by this new partnership. They decide to stop Drake and save the planet from an invasion, and you know the rest.
Perhaps the attempt to make a sanitised version of the monstrous supervillain/anti-hero was not such a good idea after all. In the process, the makers compromised not just the blood-thirsty nature of the original character, but also on the creativity of the plot. There’s more humour than expected, since that seems to be the new norm to add gloss to superhero movies.
Days before the release of the film, Director Ruben Fleischer said that he didn’t understand why fans were surprised that the movie was given the PG-13 certificate. But you really can’t blame them. Everything about the trailer made it seem like the film would be A-rated, but neither the movie nor the character were anything close to chilling. Both Venom and Eddie Brock turn out to be tame but witty losers who like to think they are dangerous.
The action sequences and CGI salvage some of the movie’s lost pride, while Hardy does fairly well to make Eddie a relatable figure. The other characters don’t get to do much to make it any better, while the final battle between Venom and Riot, another symbiote, bears more than a few resemblances to the fight between Hulk and Abomination in The Incredible Hulk (2008).
For all those complaining about the extravagance of Disney's Marvel Cinematic Universe, this would be the best example to show that those that don’t come under the umbrella of Kevin Feige and co are seriously lacking in the creativity department. It looks like Disney is the only studio that can consistently make good superhero movies.
In the last two years, we have been treated to well-crafted anti-hero flicks like Deadpool and Logan. Sadly, Venom cannot be counted as one of them. But having got the origin story out of the way, hopefully the sequel should be better. How do we know that? Wait for that mid-credit scene.
Film: Venom
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed
Rating: 2.5/5
