Review of Venom

Venom (2018)
4/10
Missed opportunity
25 November 2018
What an incredibly average film.

It takes no risks. It's watered down. It's generic. It's trying to give the impression it's following Deadpool down the R-Rated super hero route, but it didn't have the guts to go the whole way, or even take a step really.

Tom Hardy is an OK Eddie Brock, but I still find him a bit hit and miss as an actor, and that comes through even from scene to scene here. Sometimes he just mumbles his way through with no effort and I genuinely wondered if he was channeling Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, while other times he actually seemed to be trying, especially with the physical aspects. There's no connection or chemistry between Tom and Michelle Williams. I guess she was just hoping for some Marvel money and didn't realise this was a Sony picture. And the rest of the cast are incredibly average and forgettable. Especially Jenny Slate, who will always be stuck as Mona-Lisa from Parks & Rec.

There's years of comic book lore and stories to draw on for Venom, but they ignore much of it... For example, why does Venom look like Spider-man? We know why from the comics, but in the movie it makes no mention of this, so we're left with questions and a very one dimensional character as a result.

Of all the stories that could have been told about a symbiotic alien, and all the interesting directions they could have taken the story, they decide to go with what boils down to a boring buddy movie.
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