Venom was a movie that I was very excited to see, but also very nervous to see. I love the character, and the fact that Marvel was involved gave me a little hope. But it’s not an official Marvel movie, it’s not part of the larger MCU. And apparently no other studio has figured out how to make consistently good superhero movies. And those are major points to consider. So I went in simply hoping for a fun movie.
And to be honest, Venom wasn’t terrible. But still…
I think the worst thing about it was that the studio didn’t go for an “R” rating. This movie – and this character – would seem to be tailor-made for an “R” rating. Think about Logan and both Deadpool movies. Would those have been anywhere near as good as they are had they been PG-13? Absolutely not. Venom was handicapped by the rating. Its ceiling was already lowered just by that simple fact. Venom is a vicious character. He deserves a movie where he can go about his business uninhibited. Even still, though, an “R”rating could have only helped this movie so much. There was still plenty wrong with it that had nothing to do with it being PG-13.
The tone of the movie was not what I expected. There were a lot more “jokes” than I thought there would be. And yes, “jokes” is the right way to say it. Very few of them landed. The vast majority just came off as trying to hard. It almost seemed like they were attempting to copy Fox’s success with Deadpool as a funny anti-hero character. And those two movies are both great, so it’s clear that format can work. But you need to do it right. The actor, the dialogue, the actions, everything needs to click. Tom Hardy was fine here, at least when he wasn’t trying to make his terrible lines sound funny. This is another example of the movie handicapping itself with the PG-13 rating. They couldn’t go full bore into the comedic anti-hero role like Deadpool was able to. And they couldn’t go 100% into the aggressive violence like Logan (and also Deadpool). There was definite potential here, but you can feel the movie pulling in the reigns in order to keep that rating.
Within the actual movie, the script and characters were severely lacking. Riz Ahmed is a great actor (if you haven’t seen HBO’s The Night Of, it’s a STRONG recommend) but he was given such a generic bad guy character. There was no development to him, his lines were mostly awful and cheesy. He deserved better. And speaking of deserving better, how about poor Michelle Williams. She was given barely anything interesting to do. And to be fair, she did great with the role she was given. I’d say she did as well as she possibly could have. Hopefully if there is a sequel (we’ll get to that in a bit) she’ll be brought back and be given a meatier role. Beyond those two, there weren’t any supporting characters that added anything to the movie. Unless the leads are particularly strong, there has to be at least a couple other characters to give the movie some extra life. And unfortunately Venom had neither.
And Venom doesn’t even have great action scenes to make up for these other problems. Though to be fair, there are a few that are fun. There’s a particularly good extended chase scene that be the best (or at least most fun) scene in the movie. But on the other end of that are two big action sequences that were edited terribly. It was actually mostly the lighting. They were so dark and obscured it was tough to see what was even happening. The smaller, lesser stakes scenes were better put together, but the movie doesn’t do much to make you truly care about any of the characters. And that makes it harder to get into these scenes. If you don’t care what happens to the characters involved, you’re just simply not going to enjoy the scenes as much.
Ultimately Venom is probably worth a watch under the right circumstances. If you’re an AMC A-List member, it’s worth it. Or if you’re able to go see a matinée, or on a $5 ticket Tuesday, go for it. And of course, if and when it comes to any streaming service, certainly pop it on. But I wouldn’t recommend paying premier ticket pricing for a night time showing. Definitely not worth that cost. But there is just enough fun to make it worth a cheaper ticket.
And being a superhero movie, the big question on everyone’s mind is “Are there any credits scenes?” And the answer is yes, there are two. The first comes a few minutes into the credits. It teases a potential sequel and what should be a much better movie than what we have here (assuming this release does well enough to warrant a sequel). And that sequel better be rated “R.” Another PG-13 movie with that they tease would almost certainly be a disaster. The second scene comes at the end of the credits. It has absolutely nothing to do with Venom so you’re not missing anything if you leave early. But it is a fun few minutes, so if you’re not in a rush to get out of the theater, it’s worth staying a little longer.
Oscar hopes: Nada
Oscar Watch (Nothing has changed since A Star Is Born. If you read it on that review, feel free to skip.)
