He’s the villain Marvel deserves
Take a break from all those virtuous superheroes and wallow with the bad guy
The latest entry (sort of ) in the Marvel universe carries a dangerous tag line: “The world has enough superheroes.” I couldn’t agree more, and I’m going to bring it up when the next wave of Marvel characters arrives in the early 2020s.
For now, there’s Venom, who seems to exist in a sub-universe all his own, no Spider-man in sight. He — or, to be more precise, it — arrives in a spaceship crash in the opening moments of director Ruben Fleischer’s film. It’s an amorphous blob that needs a host to survive on Earth and it chooses Tom Hardy, presumably because, having worn a mask throughout The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max and Dunkirk, the actor won’t mind having his face covered.
Hardy’s character is Eddie
Brock, a muckraking journalist who for some reason walks like a saddle-sore cowboy and speaks like Rain Man. He’s engaged to lawyer Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), but his job and relationship come crashing down after he accosts her client, billionaire Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), accusing him of using the homeless population of San Francisco in nefarious biological experiments.
Eddie picks up the parasitic Venom after sneaking into Carlton’s lab one night with the help of a conscientious scientist (Jenny Slate), and I guess we
should consider him lucky that he wasn’t bitten by a radioactive spider or exposed to gamma radiation. As Venom/eddie, he’s merely constantly hungry and hears the voice of the alien in his head. He also has Carlton’s team of henchmen on his tail, which results in an exciting car chase through hilly San Francisco, Eddie driving his motorcycle
faster than a speeding Bullitt.
Early reviews for Venom have been less than kind. Certainly that name doesn’t help, inviting comparisons to box office poison. And there are some problems with plot and motivation, not least that of Ahmed’s very villainous scientist/entrepreneur, who seems not to have ever watched one of the thousands of movies in which space aliens — especially the amorphous blobby kind — mean us harm.
We’re also told that Venom’s “kryptonite” — hey, what universe is this? — consists of sounds between four and six kilohertz, as well as fire. The suggestion would seem to be that the creature had better avoid any Kiss concerts, but a little research reveals (A) that sound range is merely a high-pitched whine and (B) just about everyone’s weakness is fire. It’s the universal combustive.
On the plus side, there’s some nice banter going on in Eddie’s head, with the actor also proving the basso voice of Venom. And you can feel the director pulling back from a potential R-rating, with judicious cutaways whenever Venom decides to literally bite someone’s head off.
True to Marvel form, there are two post-movie sequences. The first, mid-credits, is a shameless plug for Venom II, or Venom-er, or whatever they plan to call it. And the second is an even more shameless ad for the next Sony/ Marvel crossover. With Disney sitting this one out — its next film is next spring ’s Captain Marvel — and Warner gearing up for Aquaman’s Christmas release, the real battle for the universe would seem to be between studio titans, not alien beasties.