By Jane Bowden
Correspondent
For many people, the name “Venom” instantly reminds them of Tobey Maguire’s 2002 Spiderman portrayal when Venom was first introduced into the live-action world. Who could forget that scene in “Spiderman 3” when Peter Parker is under Venom’s control, strutting down the street with jazz music in the background?
Director Ruben Fleischer has expounded upon the liquid alien’s character with Marvel’s long-awaited movie, “Venom.” With dark humor and thrilling visual effects comparable to “Deadpool,” the film is guaranteed to entertain a general audience, but to many Marvel-lovers’ dismay, it leaves viewers confused and unsatisfied with its rushed plot.
The film follows Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), a journalist investigating the unethical experiments of Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the founder of the bioengineering organization, Life Foundation. While the organization is renowned for researching life-saving technology and medicine, Drake is tricking lower-class individuals desperate for money into becoming subjects for experiments with superpowered, alien organisms referred to as symbiotes.
During his investigation, Brock becomes exposed to a symbiote and his body merges with Venom, a liquid, black, monstrous alien that gifts Brock with powers.
Throughout “Venom,” Brock must learn to co-exist with the villainous alien, who has a tendency to bite people’s heads off and seeps his dark humor into Brock’s psyche. Meanwhile, Drake combines with a different symbiote named Riot, a stronger and more evil alien than Venom, and begins his plan to bring more symbiotes to Earth.
Venom reveals to Brock that the symbiotes’ intentions of living on Earth is to kill and eat the entire population of humans, and as time goes on, Brock and Venom begin to form a deep-rooted connection and Venom’s opinion of humans changes. Together, the pair eventually agree on one thing — to defeat Drake and Riot and save the planet.
Although the two-hour movie promises the audience an entertaining plot, the storytelling of “Venom” is rushed, and jumps from scene to scene without thorough explanation. As a result, it is difficult for viewers to develop a full connection with the characters other than Brock and Venom. However, Hardy’s portrayal of Brock and Venom outshines the fact that it is a less-than-perfect movie.
With his delivery of Brock’s compassionate but smart-alecky personality and Venom’s dark and outrageous tendencies, he produces authentic banter between the characters that makes movie-goers wish for more scenes with the pair.
Another factor that upped “Venom’s” quality was the animated effects used to create a realistic visual of a real-life Venom. In the comics, the alien is described as an amorphous creature with rows of razor sharp fangs, an elongated tongue and eyes that resemble those of Spiderman. On screen, Venom’s two dimensional descriptions come to life in a believable manner that keeps the audience engrossed in Marvel’s world.
“Venom” might not be the movie Marvel fanatics hoped for, but it is an entertaining and humorous way to spend a Friday night when you have nothing else to do.
