Directed by: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Reid Scott
An oozy, black substance is brought to Earth by an egomaniacal billionaire just to invade bodies and become one-half of a slapstick comedy duo with Tom Hardy. That's the simple explanation of Venom, which is on the fringes of the Marvel Universe and argues in favor of my belief that not every Marvel character needs to have a movie made of it. When Venom emerges (as you see in the picture above), he is an ugly, ungainly monster which looks like the offspring of a piranha and an oil spill.
Venom, as the substance likes to call itself when it attaches itself to the perfect host in disgraced investigative reporter Eddie Brock (Hardy), at first hopes to destroy Earth, but after spending some time in Eddie's skin, he decides instead to save it. It seems Venom's character shape shifts emotionally as well as physically. When Venom opens, Eddie's life is going pretty good. He is a rising star as a hotshot TV journalist with an attorney girlfriend named Anne (Williams) who just so happens to represent the empire run by Carlton Drake (Ahmed) which Eddie is investigating. Drake is up to some malfeasance, by God, and Eddie is going to prove it. But, Eddie screws up and it costs him his job and his girl. Fast forward to six months later, and we see Eddie living in a shoddy apartment with a neighbor who wails on his electric guitar in the middle of the night.
Drake is the billionaire who brings back Venom from space and uses homeless people as unwitting lab rats to test its body snatching powers. Through plot developments too laborious to recap, Eddie finds himself in the lab gathering evidence of Drake's nefarious scheme when he is infected with the parasitic Venom. Venom wreaks havoc on Eddie's insides, causing an insatiable lust for live food and frozen tater tots. He winds up taking a bath in a lobster tank in a fancy restaurant and otherwise engaging in an inner battle against Venom. I was reminded of Dr. Sherman Klump trying to fend off Buddy Love from taking over his body in The Nutty Professor, and Eddie starts walking with the grace of Vincent D'Onofrio's bug man in Men in Black. I was also wishing I was watching either of those films instead of Venom.
Hardy puts on a distracting Noo Yawk accent which sounds like Adam Sandler as Billy Madison imitating Ratso Rizzo. We know Hardy can handle numerous accents, so why not just give us one which doesn't detract from the character? Or just make him British like Hardy himself? When Eddie speaks, I find it difficult to believe he is even literate, let alone that he is a smart, crusading reporter. Almost any accent choice is better than the one which winds up in the movie.
Hardy is up to the physical challenge of playing a man trying in vain to prevent Venom from overtaking him. This leads to some slapstick which Steve Martin performed better in All of Me. Watching Eddie is tiring. I wanted him to get some rest and a shave. He seems like a decent enough guy who doesn't deserve a movie like Venom to happen to him.
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