Venom (2018) review

When it comes to classic comic book villains, many will agree that Batman boasts the greatest collection of what has since earned the affectionate fandom term of a ‘Rogues’ Gallery’. Foes like the Joker, Two-Face, and Harley Quinn are only just a select few of the Dark Knight’s legendary antagonists. As for the best rogues’ gallery from Marvel, many would give that honor to everyone’s favorite web-slinger, Spider-Man, and for the most part, his villains have gotten solid portrayals courtesy of the web-slinger’s many cinematic outings. One of his most famous foes, however, didn’t quite get that the first time out, and that character is the sentient alien creature known as Venom. The character first appeared in issue #252 of The Amazing Spider-Man as an alien symbiote who bonds with human hosts. Spider-Man himself is temporarily subjected into being the symbiote’s host, which ends up having a negative influence on his personality. But while he manages to reject the symbiote, it ends up latching onto a new host in issue #300, reporter Eddie Brock, turning him into the monstrous creature known as Venom. And this character proved to be quite popular with fans, later making notable appearances in other forms of media including the 90’s Spider-Man animated series and hit games like the PS1 Spider-Man in 2000 and 2005’s Ultimate Spider-Man. The character would end up making his first live-action appearance in the third installment of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy that was released in 2007. However, to call this move a ‘disaster’ would be a bit of an understatement…

Originally, Venom wasn’t even meant to be in Spider-Man 3. However, Raimi was, for lack of a better term, forced to put the character in by producer Avi Arad to please the fans. Raimi obliged… resulting in the character having a limited screen-time and Topher Grace (who played Eddie Brock) considered as one of the worst casting decisions in the history of the superhero genre. This proved to be one of the major contributors behind Spider-Man 3’s less-than-stellar reception and Raimi’s eventual departure from the series given his creative conflicts with the studio. With his departure, the original Spider-Man series concluded and plans for a Venom spin-off were canned. This spin-off was put into development again, however, when Sony rebooted the series with the Amazing Spider-Man films, with Star Trek/Transformers writer Alex Kurtzman slated to direct. But, like the Raimi trilogy, the Amazing Spider-Man series ended up getting canned as well following the mediocre reaction to Amazing Spider-Man 2 and Sony making a deal with Marvel Studios to let Spider-Man appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Thus, with another franchise reboot underway, the Venom spin-off was put to rest once more… until 2017, when it was revived yet again. And this time, despite conflicting reports over it having any connections with the MCU, the film has successfully managed to avoid another cancellation, with Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer behind the camera and Tom Hardy in the title role. But with a lot of hesitation surrounding its production, the biggest question, ultimately, is whether the film manages to live up to the expectations surrounding it. Well, while it doesn’t quite reach the exact heights that it wants to achieve, that doesn’t mean that it’s terrible.

In the city of San Francisco, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is an investigative journalist with a habit for bringing down corrupt individuals through his titular TV show, The Eddie Brock Report. However, when he lands an interview with Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), the CEO of the bioengineering corporation known as the Life Foundation, he gets into serious trouble when he starts to question the company’s disreputable practices. This, in turn, causes him to get fired from his job while also destroying his relationship with his fiancé, lawyer Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), after he used some of her classified information in the interview, effectively leading to her being fired from her job as well. Six months later, Brock once again investigates into the company’s practices with the help of Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), who has been against Drake’s plans for quite some time. Through Skirth, Eddie learns that Drake intends to use alien lifeforms known as symbiotes as a means of ensuring the survival of humanity by testing their ability to bond with a human host. While investigating the company’s headquarters, Eddie comes across one of the symbiotes, which immediately bonds with him. And unlike Drake’s various test subjects, Eddie manages to withstand all the weird tendencies of the symbiote, which refers to itself as ‘Venom’. Thus, with Drake and his subjugates now directly on his tail, Eddie is forced into an uneasy partnership with Venom to ensure that they will both survive.  

Let me just start by saying that if you’re going into this film expecting a serious/dramatic take on this classic comic book antagonist, then you might be a little disappointed because this is not that kind of film. Despite it not having any major connections to the MCU (to answer your biggest question, no, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man does not cameo in this film), tonally it is in line with those films. A lot of its action is undercut with MCU-style humor, primarily through Eddie’s relationship with the symbiote. And for me, this did ultimately help to make the film a decently entertaining entry in the superhero genre. That said, though, this doesn’t mean that the film is ‘perfect’. For starters, some of the action sequences suffer from some extremely choppy editing. And to be clear, this is regardless of rumors about how the film was originally intended to be rated R before it had to be toned down to a PG-13 rating to allow for crossovers with Spider-Man, while other reports say that it was always going to be PG-13. Whatever story ends up being true, the erratic editing ends up affecting quite a few, though not all, of the action sequences. And as for the plot, it’s your basic ‘stop the evil businessman’ plot that a lot of people have critiqued some of the MCU films for having only without the emotional gravitas that helped those MCU films’ plots be more than just that. But for what its worth, the film manages to overcome a rather slow start and truly shines once the symbiote bonds itself to Eddie.

Venom serves as Tom Hardy’s second major foray into the superhero genre after portraying Batman’s classic adversary Bane in 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises. And in the context of what this film ultimately is from a tonal perspective, he does do an excellent job in the title role. Along with playing the sympathetic, down-on-his-luck Eddie Brock, of course, Hardy also provides the voice of the Venom symbiote, whose comedic banter with Eddie is the primary source of the film’s comedy. Everyone else in the cast is fine as well, though admittedly they don’t necessarily have as much to work with compared to Hardy. One who does manage to overcome this, for the most part, is Michelle Williams who, between this and The Greatest Showman, is clearly starting to try some new things when it comes to the films that she’s been appearing in. She has nice chemistry with Hardy, even in the scenes after Anne and Eddie break up, and while she doesn’t necessarily get a lot to do in the film, she’s no damsel in distress, either. Plus, there’s one moment in the film that I’m sure will satisfy comics fans given its allusion to one notable aspect of her character from the comics. And as for Riz Ahmed as the main antagonist Carlton Drake, he at least manages to work decently with the material that he’s been given. To be clear, though, there isn’t that much to the role, even after they have him bond with another symbiote known as Riot who isn’t that different in design when compared to Venom. And yes, this does become a bit of a problem when the two start to fight, partially due to the previously mentioned editing issues. Thus, at the end of the day, Drake’s just your basic ‘corrupt businessman’ stereotype.  

Well, it seems like I’m going to be part of the minority on this one. Call me crazy, but I rather enjoyed Venom. To be clear, though, I’m not saying that it is the best superhero film to come out this year, nor is it one of the genre’s all-time best. It does suffer from having some frenetically-edited action sequences and the plot’s nothing to write home about. As such, I do understand why this film isn’t exactly getting a lot of good reviews from critics and how some have viewed it as one of the genre’s weakest outings in recent years. However, I’ve also seen some folks compare this to the last big superhero ‘disaster’, 2015’s Fan4stic… and that is rather unfair if you ask me because this film is not ‘that bad’. At least Venom remembers to have more than one major action sequence while also showing some genuine signs of brilliance along the way without being affected by blatantly obvious reshoots. Ultimately, though, the biggest question is if this film does justice to the title character… and that, I will admit, is rather debatable. Given this film’s status as an MCU-style comedy, this will probably be a major turn-off for those who were hoping for a darker R-rated take on the classic Spider-Man antagonist. And to put it quite simply, you’re not going to get that with this film. But for what its worth, I had a lot of fun with this film and it is worth seeing primarily for Tom Hardy’s excellent performance in the lead role.

Rating: 3.5/5

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) review

I think it’s safe to say that Star Wars is easily the most famous franchise in pop culture history. Ever since George Lucas released the first film, Episode IV: A New Hope, back in 1977, the series has gone on to become one of the biggest global phenomena of all-time. While not every film in the series was well-received by critics and, particularly, audiences (i.e. a certain ‘prequel’ trilogy), they have all been huge commercial hits at the box-office. And when Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney in 2012 for $4.05 billion, that effectively led to the announcement that we’d be getting more Star Wars films. We got our first taste of this new run of films last year with the one and only critically-acclaimed, $2 billion grossing Episode VII: The Force Awakens, which continued the story that originally concluded more than three decades earlier with Return of the Jedi. We’ll be getting the next installment of the main saga next December, but until then, this December sees the release of the first major ‘spin-off’ of the franchise (not counting the 2008 Clone Wars film), which will pave the way for new films set within the world of Star Wars that stray away from the usual proceedings of the saga films. The first of these ‘Star Wars ‘Stories’’, Rogue One, takes place in between the events of Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, and Episode IV, A New Hope. Under the direction of Gareth Edwards, director of the 2014 reboot of Godzilla, Rogue One focuses on the events that were listed in the opening crawl of A New Hope; how the Rebel Alliance managed to steal the plans to the Empire’s planet-destroying superweapon, the Death Star. What follows is another exciting adventure in the Star Wars series that also affirms the great potential of future spin-offs.

Being set between Episodes III and IV, Rogue One takes place in a time where the Jedi Order has been extinguished and the Empire is now reigning supreme across the galaxy. The Rebel Alliance, now the only major force left that can combat the Empire, learns that a defecting Empire pilot, Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed), has been given a message to deliver to them from weapons designer Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelsen), who had been forced into working for the Empire, about the development of a superweapon. As a means of tracking down Galen, the Rebellion enlists the aid of his distant daughter, Jyn (Felicity Jones), who has been spending the last few years fending for herself after escaping from the Empire when they came for her dad. And thus, Jyn, along with Rebel Officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Andor’s droid assistant and reprogrammed Empire enforcer droid K-2SO (Alan Tudyk), Rook, mercenary Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen), and blind Force-warrior Chirrut Ȋmwe (Donnie Yen), head off on a mission to find Galen and learn more about this new weapon. Of course, as they all find out, this weapon is the Death Star, a fully-operational battle station capable of destroying an entire planet in one fell swoop. Recognizing the magnitude of what the space station can do, and learning about a secret in regards to its design that was implemented by Galen himself, Jyn and company take on the risky venture of trying to find the plans for the Death Star, all while dealing with the sizable threat of the Empire’s forces, particularly Imperial Director Orson Krennic (Ben Mendelsohn) who was an old acquaintance of Jyn’s father.

While Rogue One does start off on a rather slow note, it immediately begins to pick up once the main characters are brought together. What follows is the usual exciting action of Star Wars combined with the stylings of a war film, a genre that the filmmakers have been alluding to frequently in interviews when it came to describing the film. And you can see that with this, particularly in its epic third act battle on the paradise-like planet of Scarif. In fact, I’d argue that Rogue One has the best action sequences to date in regards to Disney’s new line of Star Wars films. The whole third act, in general, is practically worth the admission price alone. And while I would still give the edge to The Force Awakens when it comes to the overall story and characters, Rogue One also deserves some major credit when it comes to its overall execution. For being a ‘Star Wars prequel’ (stay with me, folks…), it does a much more conservative job of serving as that. Sure, there are references to A New Hope here and there but they’re definitely subtler in execution compared to the references made in the prequel trilogy. And, of course, the film deserves much credit for its effective recreation of the world of Star Wars (as seen in the original trilogy) through its production design. From using the appropriate Empire/Rebellion era outfits to the practically seamless replication of the Rebel Base on Yavin IV, you’d swear that this film was made around the exact same time as A New Hope.

Now given the fact that this does take place before A New Hope, Rogue One has the challenge of dealing with the potential predictability of its plot. I promise that I’m not going to spoil anything that happens in this film but let’s just say that if you’ve at least seen A New Hope, you probably have a good idea about how this all ends. But, even with that in mind, the film does succeed in establishing a solid amount of emotional depth through these characters. I wouldn’t say that it’s ‘as strong’ as Force Awakens in that department but it’s still solid. There were some legitimately effective emotional moments in this film and you really do see the commitment that the ‘Rogue One’ crew have when it comes to completing their mission. And part of this solid characterization does come courtesy of the excellent ensemble cast. As Jyn, Felicity Jones brings a great combination of the spunk that Daisy Ridley brought to the role of Rey and the roguish nature of Han Solo to the role, resulting in her becoming yet another great Star Wars lead heroine. She’s matched well with Diego Luna who, as Cassian, gets a solid arc in which we see how he contrasts with Jyn as a loyal soldier to the Rebellion. The rest of the film’s diverse cast is excellent as well, with major standouts including legendary Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen as the badass warrior Chirrut and Alan Tudyk, who provides the vocal/mo-cap performance for K-2SO, easily the most sarcastic droid that Star Wars has ever seen. And of course, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the much talked about return of Darth Vader. He’s not in the film that much (probably about four minutes or so) but, without giving anything away, I assure you that we can now forget about the time when he once said that he didn’t like sand… or the time he screamed “NOOOOO!!!!!” after learning about the death of his wife.

I was excited by the announcement of Star Wars spin-offs because it meant that this would lead to new possibilities in terms of stories within the massive world of Star Wars. And Rogue One starts this new line of spin-offs on a high note. Obviously, there’s been a lot of talk about the film having to go through reshoots, apparently to primarily fix the ending. But, ultimately, this didn’t negatively affect the film in any way. Thanks to the solid direction of Gareth Edwards, Rogue One is a well-matched mix of the usual Star Wars escapades with the war film esque nature of its plot. It also manages to overcome its status as being a film set in-between Episodes III and IV with its solid handling of teases, cameos, and fan-service. Going into this film, anyone who’s at least seen Episode IV could probably guess the way in which this film’s story ends. Though, to the film’s credit, it does manage to elicit a solid amount of emotional depth, especially considering this story’s place in the overall Star Wars lore. All that, as well as a solid cast and incredible action sequences, shows that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will no doubt pave the way for more great spin-offs in a galaxy far, far away. In short, for a film that is the most dreaded word amongst Star Wars fans, a ‘prequel’, it ends up being the best Star Wars prequel to date, though obviously for most Star Wars fans that is not saying much.

Rating: 4.5/5