Venom is no Marvel
VENOM CAST: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate, Melora Walters
DIRECTOR: Ruben Fleischer
RUNNING TIME: 120 minutes
CLASSIFICATION: 16 H L V RATING: ★★✩✩✩ THE ONLY startling moment in the irredeemable Venom that makes you sit up and take notice comes at the 71-minute mark, when the sight of a dishevelled, stubbly, sweaty and bloated Tom Hardy jolts you with the realisation that here is the perfect actor to one day play Harvey Weinstein.
For that insight alone, the film is valuable. Those involved should reflect upon the truth of the pic’s advertising tagline: “The world has enough Superheroes”.
Venom briefly surfaced in the modern cinematic world of superheroes and arch-villains in the 2007 Sony release Spider-Man 3. Eleven years later, the character finally has a film of his own, and more’s the pity.
As an origin story, this one seems rote and unimaginative. On top of that, the writing and film-making are blah in every respect; the movie looks like an imitator, a wannabe, not the real deal.
While a spaceship is crashing in Malaysia, bringing with it a plague in the form of bluish-black seaweedlike goo, scruffy San Francisco investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Hardy) is fired from his TV show for insulting hi-tech magnate Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) during an interview. Eddie comes off like a grubby schmuck – too clueless to have convincingly forged a career as a fearless reporter.
Eddie is certain there’s something funny going on up at Drake’s fancy facilities on a Marin hillside.
Plus he has an insider there. Unfortunately, the Marvel formula remains the same, involving a genius entrepreneur’s double identity as a man of science and a secret monster.
Eddie becomes infected with the yucky stuff, which equips him with powers of elasticity and an alter ego who maintains a constant dialogue with him. A modest degree of humour grows out of this but this is small compensation for the rote action scenes.
Hardy has always had a terrific screen presence, but this might be his least interesting performance.
The lack of imagination makes one appreciate the thought and care that Marvel has lavished not only on the likes of Black Panther and Captain America but even on more minorleague entries such as the amusing Ant-Man titles. – The Hollywood Reporter