Venom Movie (2018) | Review

Venom Story: A bold reporter’s desperate plan to redeem his career backfires when he's infected by a parasite who brings out his vicious alter-ego.

Venom Review: Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is an intrepid journalist, who doesn’t know when to carry back, and this costs him dearly when he loses his job and more. His mistake? taking over Carlton Drake – a businessman who considers himself to be a visionary, albeit with sketchy morals. to not be outdone, Brock tries to probe into Drake’s shady activities when he encounters a mind-reading extra-terrestrial being that fuses with him giving him extraordinary powers. 

     Brock is now left to settle on how he uses his newfound abilities. If there was any doubt that Tom Hardy was best suited to require on the twin personalities of Venom/ Eddie Brock, they quickly dissipate once the interplay between the 2 begins. 

     Hardy has handled roles that need him to juggle between personas, and he demonstrates all his prior experience here. Once ‘possessed’, Hardy infuses a playful yet dark aura to Brock that works well to bring some frenetic vigour to the film.

     But the screenplay doesn’t allow us more insight into the moral conundrum browsing his mind. This proves to be frustrating once you know that the actor behind the role has more depth and range than the script allows. In fact, it seems to worry mainly with stomping from one plot point to subsequent , which gets tedious. 

     The dissonance between the characters and therefore the plot points are painfully evident during the awkward conversations they need with each other; particularly between Brock and his ex-girlfriend Anne, featuring Michelle Williams during a baffling casting choice. 

    Why hire a decorated actress if you don’t skills to maximise her skills? an equivalent are often asked of Riz Ahmed who trudges along in villain mode as just another person who wants to vary the planet because ‘reasons’.

     What the screenplay lacks in character development, it makes up for in a minimum of a few of the action scenes which are well staged and executed, but the anti-climax when it all converges into a huge CGI blob, quite literally. 

     All hope isn’t lost though. A mid-credits scene does enough to create excitement for the next sequel, which hopefully will feature Venom being integrating into the Spider-verse. If nothing, Tom Hardy proves that he’s quite equipped to play the sentient symbiote, but within the hands of a better director implementing a tauter story.