Summary:
While journalist Eddie Brock is working on a story he encounters a powerful symbiote and becomes an anti-hero.
My Thoughts:
Well, let me preface this review by saying I am not a huge comic book movie fan, but I do enjoy them. I’m not the kind of guy that goes out of my way to read up on superhero theories or get pumped about the next Marvel announcement; there’s just too many superheroes nowadays- I feel like I’d get exhausted trying to keep up. But while I don’t ever really go out of my way to see all superhero flicks in theaters, I feel like I’ve seen most of them at one point or another (most of the newer ones when they hit Netflix). This film was one that I had mild interest in during it’s preproduction stages. I like Tom Hardy (“The Revenant”), Michelle Williams (“Synecdoche New York”) and Riz Ahmed (“The Sisters Brothers”), but I’m very tepid when it comes to the films of Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”). When the first trailer for this film dropped so did my expectations; I immediately thought this film looked really rough- even the writing in the trailer was stilted and awkward. As the film drew nearer and more trailers began to drop, and rumors and articles surrounding the film began to bubble to the surface, I thought the movie looked rougher still. Finally, when the reviews started to roll out, my suspicions were confirmed: this movie was going to suck. Well, for one reason or another, my brother and I decided to see this opening night; both of us expected it to be dull and boring, but to my great surprise, I enjoyed this far more than I thought I would… Let me clarify: this movie is garbage, but it is absolutely hilarious. There were actually people laughing at the film (not with it) as this screening was going on (remember, this was opening night, when all the die-hard fans come out to see their favorite superheroes grace the big screen). My brother and I left the theater with big smiles on our face; while I wouldn’t recommend seeing this film in theaters, I would absolutely recommend seeing this film as a bad movie when it hits Netflix. This is a perfect film to watch on a rainy day with a few friends and a few beers; it’s a completely mindless film that has more humor than many of the comedies I’ve seen this year.
“We are Venom.”
Eddie Brock (Hardy) is an investigative journalist living in San Francisco. After his girlfriend Anne Weying (Williams) receives a confidential email about an experimental research program happening at a scientific compound nearby, Brock interviews Carlton Drake (Ahmed), but is then fired for doing so. Six months later, Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate, “Hotel Artemis”) contacts Brock to let him know that she has proof of the deathly experiments, but when they try to investigate, Brock is contaminated with a symbiote.
So I’m just going to say right now that there will probably be a lot of spoilers in this review a) because I don’t care, and b) because this movie is so poorly written that I feel the need to dive in to a bunch of the plot holes/ random crap that just doesn’t make sense at all. You’ve been warned.
So first off, the writing for this movie is abysmal. Dialogue, storyline- they’re both terrible. The dialogue frequently feels stiff and overly wordy, and the actors seemed to know it because the lines often felt strange when spoken. Michelle Williams, whom I normally love, absolutely phoned in her performance; she couldn’t have cared less in this whole movie. It looks like she showed up, recited her lines and called it good. I actually read a few articles where she said she truthfully took this role for the money and to act with Tom Hardy, and that is incredibly evident. Riz Ahmed, another actor I really like, didn’t seem right for this role at all. When he tried to be menacing he instead came off as slightly irritated, and his dialogue came with a few soliloquies about scientific progress, all of which were cringe worthy. Hardy seemed to be the only one that really cared about how this film turned out, and he truthfully gave an interesting performance (not a great one, but he was memorable). Where the movie really falls apart is with the logic of the world that it created, because Fleischer continuously establishes rules and then immediately forgets that they were there. Again, I’m not a huge comic book movie fan, so I’m sure there are things that I’m missing as far as comic book connections or logic; I’m coming at this as a casual fan of Marvel movies. Again; TONS of spoilers to follow. If you plan on seeing this film without prior knowledge, don’t read this review first.
So, our opening scene is a space ship crashing into Malaysia, a symbiote comes from the crashed ship and attaches itself to some lady, and walks off menacingly into the distance. We cut back to this lady throughout the film, and she transfers the symbiote to other people; it gradually makes its way towards San Francisco. The opening scene was actually kind of cool- though we never establish who is in the rocket ship, or why we should care about these people, or what was supposed to be going on there. Almost immediately I could kind of tell why people were complaining about how this movie wasn’t rated R too; the symbiotes kill like 70 freaking people in this movie, and it probably would’ve been more enjoyable if they‘d let Fleischer run wild with it. The next thirty-five/forty minutes are incredibly boring. Hardy runs around trying to find out what’s going on at Ahmed’s lab, but to no avail. He and Michelle Williams break up in the least emotional scene I’ve ever watched with Michelle Williams (remember “Manchester by the Sea”, “Blue Valentine”, even “Shutter Island”? Michelle Williams can give off a truly emotional performance when she tries. This was just funny). Eventually, Dr. Skirth (pronounced ‘Skirt’ throughout the film- which came off sounding a little sexist- Dr. Skirt is the only female scientist? Come on…) approaches Brock and tells him that she has evidence surrounding the experiments. Skirth says that Drake is using these symbiotes to try to find the next stage in evolution, and- now this is important- symbiotes need COMPATIBLE hosts in order to survive. It is VERY RARE for hosts to be compatible, so Drake has been experimenting for months, and multiple people have died. Also, if the symbiote goes without a host for a little while, it will die; and if the symbiote leaves the hosts’ bodies, the hosts die. Skirth and Brock break into the lab quite easily (there is only one security guard and apparently no cameras throughout this TOP SECRET PROJECT- because that makes sense). Anyways, Brock gets infected with the symbiote and runs away, leading the lab security guards on a chase. Oh, and suddenly instead of one security guard with a Taser, there are like thirty security guards and they have machine guns and freaking ATVs. They open fire on Brock (because that would be proper procedure for an intruder) and chase him through the woods, but Brock escapes because he has the symbiotes help (though he doesn’t know it yet). Skirth returns to work (why would you do that?), and Drake immediately knows that she was the one that let Brock into the building. Drake feeds Skirth to the symbiote and she dies, because really the only reason she was in this movie was to get Brock to the symbiote. Eventually, goons track Brock back to his apartment where he is wrestling with the symbiote’s new powers, and here is really where the film starts to fall apart.
The climax of the film, featuring a big pile of goo fighting itself.
After goons arrive at Brocks apartment, he fights them off and jumps on his motorcycle, but a team of exploding drones pursues him… that’s right, there is a motorcycle/drone chase in this film. This is the point in the film where I first looked over at my brother and said that I couldn’t believe how dumb this movie was- but we were just getting started with the stupidity. Eventually, Brock talks to Williams’ new boyfriend Dr. Dan Lewis (Reid Scott, “Under the Eiffel Tower”) because he believes he’s sick with something. While undergoing some tests, it’s revealed that the symbiote is killing Brock, so they use a high pitched frequency to get remove the symbiote from Brock, and the symbiote leaves and goes into a dog. This immediately breaks three rules that we established earlier; 1) symbiotes kill the hosts as they leave, 2) the symbiote cannot survive long without a proper host, 3) a proper host is hard to find. So with all these rules thrown out the window, I sat back and thought to myself, “what the heck is going on…” Again, we were just getting started. Brock is taken away from the hospital by a bunch of goons, but is able to escape with the help of Williams because Williams takes the symbiote from the dog (again, the symbiote doesn’t kill her, and she was apparently also compatible) and brings it to Hardy. Williams, as Venom, gives Hardy the symbiote power back by kissing him (like it’s a Disney cartoon). By this point, I was seriously just laughing at pretty much whatever they had to throw at me. When Hardy gets the symbiote back, Brock and Venom have a conversation during which Venom tells Brock he reevaluated his opinion on Earth, and Venom has decided he likes Earth and wants to save it… When Brock asks what changed Venom’s mind, Venom responds that Eddie changed his mind (this incredibly cheesy moment drew laughs from the whole theater). Drake, meanwhile, encounters a little girl who is carrying the symbiote from Malaysia, and absorbs her symbiote (again, isn’t compatibility supposed to be rare? Also, wouldn’t it have made more sense to just have a symbiote break out of the lab instead of having it travel around the globe to San Francisco? Whatever, Fleischer… you do you.) Then we’re pretty much already at the climax, which feels completely out of the blue. The climax is set at a rocket ship (huh?) which was never previously established (unless you count the rocket crash at the beginning). Drake says that he wants to go into space, and all of his staff members just go along with it without raising any real concerns (Really? You don’t need to plan this out ahead of time? Can you really just decide to launch a rocket into space without alerting anyone?). Anyways, since Brock and Venom are best buds now, the two of them decide to team up to stop Drake and symbiote Riot from launching into space. The fight between them is a smorgasbord of special effects, during which both characters combine into a big pile of goo and scream in pain. The rocket goes off, but of course Brock stops it. We see Eddie a few weeks later, and realize Venom is still there with him. Then we set up for a sequel with a mid credits cut scene featuring Woody Harrelson (“No Country for Old Men”) as Carnage.
Verdict
Well, I hadn’t originally intended to give a huge rundown of this film, but I guess that’s what ended up happening. Though I’ve given this film a 2.5/5 star rating, it’s a film that I actually intend to buy when it comes out, because I truly enjoyed myself during this movie (more so than some of the other recent Marvel movies even). As far as logic, acting, writing, directing, and overall craft, this movie is awful. In terms of enjoyment, this film is fantastically entertaining, though I really doubt I enjoyed it the way the filmmakers intended. If you’re looking for a good superhero film, don’t bother with this one. If you’re looking for a lot of laughs and some truly baffling writing and scenarios, check out this movie- it’s freaking hilarious.
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