Venom (2018) Review

With Venom: Let There Be Carnage coming out in The UK tomorrow, I thought that I had to go back and watch the original Venom film which I have only seen once before and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees a struggling reporter bonded with an alien parasite who have to save the world. 

Main Character

Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock and he does a decent job here. You can tell he is fully committed and giving everything to the role and because he is a good actor it mostly pays off. It's not one of his best performances but he has a bit of charm and humour to him that does enough and his interactions with Venom is the highlight of the film. Hardy also voices Venom and is really good at it, the dynamic between the two of them is really good and I just wish there was more of it in this film. 

Supporting Characters

Michelle Williams plays a romantic foil for Eddie Brock and I just couldn't get invested in her as a character. The dynamic between her and Hardy is just never there for me and it just feels like that there has to be a love interest but they didn't put much time and effort into it. Riz Ahmed plays a bad guy and honestly, I have never been a huge fan of his and he is just really bland in this film. This is a mixture of poor writing and a weak performance that doesn't hold up against Hardy who is really trying. This cast is so small and unfortunately, apart from Venom and Eddie there are no character that stands out.  

Story 

The story is also a mess, things just don't make sense and none of it is interesting at all. The bad guys plan doesn't add up and the plot is really not given the focus that it needs. It takes way too long to get to the meat of it and even then it doesn't do enough to keep your interest. 

Script

The script actually has some funny moments, the dialogue between Eddie and Venom is decent and thank goodness for that because the drama is poor. The relationship drama doesn't work and the conflict between our protagonist and antagonist is not done well to say the least. 

Style

Venom himself looks great, the CGI is really good and I really like how large he is compared to the previous iteration that we saw in Spider-Man 3. Some of the action scenes are decent as well, but I do wish they could have pushed the violence a bit more as it seems a bit tame for Venom. The pacing for the film is a bit all over the place too, it takes too long for Venom to actually come on screen with the film being quite short, it doesn't use its time effectively. 

Overall

Overall, Venom is a below average film. Tom Hardy really tries but the rest of the cast aren't great and the story is all over the place so lets hope the sequel will be better. 

Rating - 4/10