Venom Review

Molly Briggs ‘19, Editor-In-Chief

Nevie Smith ‘19, Contributor

In Venom, the latest Marvel installation, journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) gains superpowers after an alien symbiote crashes on Earth and possesses him. While attempting to come back from a failed attempt to expose Carlton Drake’s (Riz Ahmed) sketchy Life Foundation, Brock accidentally bonds with the alien Venom. With newfound super strength and a carnivorous appetite, Eddie must learn to control his violent alter-ego while trying to win back the woman he loves and stop the symbiotes from taking over the world.

Going in to Venom, I (Molly) didn’t have any high hopes whatsoever, considering its 30% on Rotten Tomatoes and the terrible reviews I had gotten from others who had already seen it. And I’m sad to say that my low expectations were not exceeded. I had been hoping for something more similar to that of the comic books (because that means it would involve Spider-Man aka Tom Holland), but I was thoroughly disappointed in the plotline. While there were some funny moments, the action scenes were only eh and the characters themselves were very flat, as was Tom Hardy’s performance. The relationship between him and his love interest Anne Weying, played by Michelle Williams, was extremely boring. To make matters worse, there was a complete change in character of Venom himself halfway through the movie that made absolutely no sense at all. I wanted Venom to be a cool super-villain origin story, but all I got was a below-average movie, even for Marvel.

I (Nevie) had no idea what to expect before watching Venom. I knew it was a Marvel movie, but I hadn’t really heard that much about it or seen any previews. And, although I thought Venom was a decent film, it just couldn’t compare to the other Marvel movies I’ve seen. Some scenes were a little cringey and even though I thought Tom Hardy did well, the rest of the acting was not great. The long action scenes were sometimes difficult to keep track of and took up so much of the movie. Most of the characters were pretty unlikeable and it was kind of hard to figure out who to root for, since it’s basically just an entire movie dedicated to a villain. I thought the story was cool, but it’s execution didn’t work out very well. There was nothing I absolutely hated about Venom, but there was nothing I loved either. I can say however, that the theme song “Venom” by Eminem, is pretty catchy and has been stuck in my head since the day I watched the movie. I’d say it was a fairly mediocre movie, but I’d still encourage any Marvel fan to watch Venom.

Overall, Venom seemed like an afterthought in the minds of Marvel, and we’d give it a 4/10. However, we can expect a sequel due to the post-credit scene solely dedicated to setting one up. While we were disappointed with many aspects of the movie, if you are a Marvel fan, Venom may be worth watching.