Venom: Movie Review
Oh, look. It's another superhero movie. Which one is it this time? Marvel or DC? What? What d'you mean neither? Sony? I thought they're working on Spiderman flicks with Marvel Studios only. It's not Spiderman but it's kind of related? Would you just temme already, this is quite a tiresome questioning you know? (Gets shown trailer for Venom). Ohhhhh. This should be goood (rubs hands gleefully).
Venom. Possibly the most badass anti-hero character in my memory from the Spiderverse. Tom Hardy. One of the best badass actors of this generation. Add it up and what you should have is an epic comic-book live-action movie. But there's this big, big problem and it's got to do with legal ownership of characters and their fictional universes.
Venom is an alien symbiote life-form with a back story rooted deep in the Spiderverse and involves Spidey himself. But with the third-gen reboot of the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman being driven by the Marvel Comic Universe, Sony simply could not include him and had to make this an entirely different character. A tough challenge and director Ruben Fleischer failed to rise to meet it. To give credit where credit is due, the film without comic book context is still quite entertaining and the symbiotic VFX are phenomenal. After all Ruben has Zombieland in his CV and that's one of my all-time favourite films. Unfortunately, the action scenes didn't quite live up to the expectation either even though its cool to watch protagonist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) get some serious air while roaring through San Francisco on his Ducati Scrambler.
Another big issue in the narrative apart from the hollow excuse of a replacement backstory was the lack of a convincing villain. An evil but scientifical genius Carlton Drake (played by Riz Ahmed) who gets caught up in his own vision of shaping humanity's future and its evolution, just didn't cut it. We all know by now, the better the villain, the more memorable the story. This one had the right cast for both, just not a good enough story to tell.
But. But, but, but. If you forget everything that you expect Venom is supposed to be, from the comics and the cartoons and the Spiderverse that we superhero fans know of and just watch the film to be entertained for about two hours? I think this still does a really good job of it. There're enough funny moments, real-world references, fascinating VFX and spine-tingling Tom Hardy moments in it to be worth a watch. Not necessarily at weekend ticket price though. But do watch till the end of the credits. Trust me.
On a personal level, I had a good time and I'd definitely watch it again once it's out on Amazon Prime or Netflix or whichever. For that, I'd rate Venom 7 out of 10 bags of frozen chicken nuggets.
Note to readers: Hi! Yes, this is yet another time that the Loon hasn't quite kept his word of putting up enough reviews and articles for y'all to read. As usual, I've either been too busy or too worked up to write anything for you lot but as always, thanks for sticking around and supporting the blog. I'd like to remind you that you can send in stuff too. Anything that you want to get off your chest and onto the Sane Loon blog, do let me know in the comments below and I'll get back to you. Cheers!
Venom. Possibly the most badass anti-hero character in my memory from the Spiderverse. Tom Hardy. One of the best badass actors of this generation. Add it up and what you should have is an epic comic-book live-action movie. But there's this big, big problem and it's got to do with legal ownership of characters and their fictional universes.
Venom is an alien symbiote life-form with a back story rooted deep in the Spiderverse and involves Spidey himself. But with the third-gen reboot of the friendly neighbourhood Spiderman being driven by the Marvel Comic Universe, Sony simply could not include him and had to make this an entirely different character. A tough challenge and director Ruben Fleischer failed to rise to meet it. To give credit where credit is due, the film without comic book context is still quite entertaining and the symbiotic VFX are phenomenal. After all Ruben has Zombieland in his CV and that's one of my all-time favourite films. Unfortunately, the action scenes didn't quite live up to the expectation either even though its cool to watch protagonist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) get some serious air while roaring through San Francisco on his Ducati Scrambler.
Another big issue in the narrative apart from the hollow excuse of a replacement backstory was the lack of a convincing villain. An evil but scientifical genius Carlton Drake (played by Riz Ahmed) who gets caught up in his own vision of shaping humanity's future and its evolution, just didn't cut it. We all know by now, the better the villain, the more memorable the story. This one had the right cast for both, just not a good enough story to tell.
But. But, but, but. If you forget everything that you expect Venom is supposed to be, from the comics and the cartoons and the Spiderverse that we superhero fans know of and just watch the film to be entertained for about two hours? I think this still does a really good job of it. There're enough funny moments, real-world references, fascinating VFX and spine-tingling Tom Hardy moments in it to be worth a watch. Not necessarily at weekend ticket price though. But do watch till the end of the credits. Trust me.
On a personal level, I had a good time and I'd definitely watch it again once it's out on Amazon Prime or Netflix or whichever. For that, I'd rate Venom 7 out of 10 bags of frozen chicken nuggets.
Note to readers: Hi! Yes, this is yet another time that the Loon hasn't quite kept his word of putting up enough reviews and articles for y'all to read. As usual, I've either been too busy or too worked up to write anything for you lot but as always, thanks for sticking around and supporting the blog. I'd like to remind you that you can send in stuff too. Anything that you want to get off your chest and onto the Sane Loon blog, do let me know in the comments below and I'll get back to you. Cheers!
Comments
Post a Comment