Review of Venom (2018) by Heath W — 04 Oct 2018

Another Super Hero (Super Villain?) origin story for the big screen. At least this one knows it's flaws and works them to its advantage.

Most scenes are at night to lessen the CGI shortcomings, Venom being mainly all black looks much better this way. If it's possible not to compare this Sony release to the usual Marvel Movies franchise, it does have its own charm.

It does feel like a R rating might have served it better, as watching a character whose main joy seems to be in killing people and eating their heads, and proceeds to do so in M rated fashion just comes off as odd. Shots end with a big open mouth or bodies falling in front of camera with little to no blood or gore that one would expect.

There's a lot of time spent trying to generate sympathy for the rather stolid Eddie Brock and establish his motivations, which change a number of times throughout, just to arrive at the usual 'protagonist struggling to deal with a new super power' routine. The first three quarters are engaging enough to make you think this might be going somewhere special, then the old Hollywood digital characters battle takes place and reminds you that no film company seems how to know to climax endings any different than any other super hero movie.

All in all a worthwhile viewing, albeit nothing that you haven't seen before and definitely stick around for the post credits scene.