Is 'Venom' the Best Marvel Movie Ever?
by EG
The Spider-Man-adjacent Marvel character Venom gets his own movie this week, and one reviewer is not impressed with the result. Read on for his thoughts.
The only startling moment in the thoroughly irredeemable Venom that makes you sit up and take notice comes at the 71-minute mark, when the sight of a disheveled, stubbly, sweaty and bloated Tom Hardy jolts you with the realization that here is the perfect actor to one day play Harvey Weinstein. For that insight and that insight alone, this film is valuable. Notwithstanding the guaranteed profits stemming from any film with the Marvel brand attached to it, those involved should reflect upon the truth of the pic's advertising tagline: “The world has enough Superheroes.”
Venom briefly surfaced in the modern cinematic world of superheroes and arch-villains in the 2007 Sony release Spider-Man 3, but director Sam Raimi always resented that producer Avi Arad had forced this bad boy upon him, and Topher Grace's impersonation was not a success. Eleven years later, the character finally has a film of his own, and more's the pity.
At a time when the Marvel universe is both expanding adventurously (Black Panther) and wrapping up other storylines (Avengers: Infinity War), Venom feels like a throwback, a poor second cousin to the all-stars that have reliably dominated the box-office charts for most of this century. Partly, this is due to the fact that, as an origin story, this one seems rote and unimaginative. On top of that, the writing and filmmaking are blah in every respect; the movie looks like an imitator, a wannabe, not the real deal.
While a spaceship of unknown origin is crashing in Malaysia, bringing with it a plague in the form of bluish-black seaweed-like goo that even the late Anthony Bourdain might have resisted trying, scruffy San Francisco investigative journalist Eddie Brock (Hardy) is fired from his local TV show for insulting hi-tech magnate Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) during an interview. For all his alleged talent, as well as for the smarts and insolence Hardy normally brings to his roles, Eddie comes off like a grubby schmuck — too clueless to have convincingly forged a career as a fearless reporter and too sloppy and unsophisticated to be engaged to a sharp cookie like Anne (Michelle Williams), a character insufficiently defined and employed in the inspiration-challenged script by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel.
Virtually living on the street now, Eddie is certain there's something funny going on up at Drake's fancy facilities tucked on a Marin hillside just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. Plus he has an insider there (Jenny Slate), an ethically conflicted woman who eventually tips the suspicious Eddie off as to what's going on with the goo. Slate's is a role that could profitably have been expanded and made more realistic.
Unfortunately, the Marvel formula remains the same as usual, involving a genius entrepreneur's double identity as a man of science and a secret monster with grandiose plans. The potential for Drake's plot seems conspicuously unconvincing even by Marvel standards (the late Peter Cook's World Domination League, anyone?), and the normally scene-stealing Ahmed can't come up with any amusing angles to make the character pop.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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