By Staff Writer Gabriella Barthe.
Venom and A Star is Born hit theaters on the same night sparking a strange controversy where fans of Lady Gaga rushed online reviews to push A Star is Born higher than its supposed “competitor.” While these acts seemingly made no sense as the two films were not in the same genre, it has left many wondering: is Venom actually any good?
Venom follows the story of journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) as he accidentally becomes Venom – a Marvel character from the Spiderman universe.
Eddie Brock is a hard-hitting journalist aimed at exposing some of the world’s biggest controversies.
He’s known in the movie for asking the tough questions and struggles with being able to hold back this part of himself to keep his job.
After being invited to the Life Foundation, Brock is charged with interviewing CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) – a man who owns an operates his own Space exploration company much like Space X.
CEO Drake is focused on pushing his company into the future but is known for being evil and malicious. He doesn’t follow standard ethical procedures for his science, testing alien parasites out on homeless individuals from the city.
When Brock tries to shed light on this, he steals his fiancée Anne Weying’s (Michelle Williams) work documents, gets her fired, and in turn is fired himself. He goes on a downward spiral until one of Drake’s employees invites him into the lab to find proof of how terrible he and his company are.
Only Brock doesn’t just find evidence, he leaves with an alien parasite who goes by Venom and eventually partners up with him to stop a second alien parasite Riot inside of Drake from blasting a rocket to the place where these aliens came from and destroying the world.
You know, the stereotypical white man down goes into a lab and comes out with a super power that the Spiderman universe is known for.
Despite having a vaguely unoriginal story line, Venom did surprisingly well as a film. Brock’s antihero attitude is reminiscent of Daredevil where he isn’t afraid to do whatever he has to in order to reach his goal. Not only that, he lets Venom eat people – a lot.
Of the three women in the movie, all three are mostly just objects used to push the plot forward. Anne, Brock’s ex-fiancée, is there to provide Brock with information, and then is taken over by Venom at the hospital so they could join back together.
Maria (Melora Walters), the homeless woman, is only in the film to give Brock an emotional reason for screwing with stuff in the lab and walking out with Venom.
While Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) only comes into the picture for Brock to use her for his own selfish reasons – exposing Drake.
Brock doesn’t actually seem to care that what Drake is doing it wrong, he wants to prove that he was right and that’s all that seems to matter to him.
At times, it felt more like watching a car chase film than an action super hero movie, but that didn’t detract from the story line.
The characters were performed well, the plot line was well thought out and effects came together flawlessly. Ultimately Venom pulled together as a solidly good movie, something that is enjoyable to watch.
Will Venom be winning any awards this year? Probably not, but if you have the time to check it out and are in the mood for a superhero fix, this is a decent contender.