Review of Venom (2018) by Coolius F — 05 Oct 2018

Venom is pretty bad. The writing is awful, and from there things fall apart.

SPOILERS:

Tom Hardy is great in other movies but totally unconvincing here as Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist. He behaves like a street thug and doesn't give off that "freedom of the press" vibe that Hoffman and Redford do in All the President's Men.

The villain in the movie is kind of a joke because of the writing. Actor Riz Ahmed's character Carlton whoever, CEO of... zzzzz.

The action scenes are just ok. To compare, the motorcycle chase scene in Venom just doesn't reach the height of excitement achieved by the motorcycle chase scene in Mission Impossible: Fallout. Tom Hardy and Tom Cruise are both riding motorcycles - check, w/o helmets (not a good idea but) - check, while weaving through traffic - check, in cool cities (San Francisco and Paris, respectively) - check, yet the chase scene in Venom seems less exhilarating/tense. Way to go, Fallout!

Noteworthy:

Kryptonite is mentioned (5th time Superman is referenced in a Spider-Man feature; twice in movies, thrice on tv).

Reid Scott's character is named Dan, like his other character, Dan Egan, from Veep.

J Jonah Jameson's son, the astronaut, has a short cameo.

The hills of San Francisco are a thrill to drive through.

Venom has no history w/ Spider-Man in this telling.

There are two end-credits scenes.

Recommend:

Go see Upgrade (2018) instead, it is similar to and is the better version of this Venom story. It stars Logan Marshall-Green, a Tom Hardy look-alike.