Review of Venom (2018) by Kyle M — 10 Oct 2018

After the disastrous lesser reception for both similarly-crowded "Spider-Man 3" and "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" that ended each once successful iterations, Sony has been trying to refine their webby footing till their stubbornly-kept property found a better home in Marvel with better success. They had plans, and kept some of them to continue on further for cash grab as a contribution into the shared universe without the main character that gave those stories purposes. Sony's first contributive, distant attempt was their first non-Spidey plan that finally found a footing but "Venom" has an unbalanced focus while meeting the supposed expectations without exceeding.

Director Ruben Fleischer ("Zombieland") followed Sony's restricted template with an actual comic "Venom: Lethal Protector" as an efficient source material for an understandable tackle whereas in the film Eddie Brock settled in San Francisco as an investigative reporter looking for a comeback by exposing a hidden scandal. But digging in too deep brought himself to become an accidental host of an alien symbiote that strengthens his capabilities with violent lusts, bonded with the super alter-ego identified as Venom. With the stressful parasitic bond, Eddie must find balance and compromise with the symbiote who is being hunted by the shadowy organization that suddenly leads into an invaded corrupted motive.

On the bright side of the standalone position, the Venom character was finally given the right treatment on the silver screen with most of the mythos remained intact, even when taking Spider-Man out of the character's purposeful equation hasn't made any damage but more of an eventual expectation to maintain the promising value with any true honesty. Doubts were expected, and this project refutes them in presenting how much depth these is to the story that couldn't be handled nor told much as a sub plot if it was a Spider-Man interfering flick. What made the character work on its own is the decently tasteful visual effects of bringing his kind to life as a fresh introduction whilst expressing the challenging capabilities to power the "Incredible Hulk"-like action under monstrous circumstances. And the main element goes to Tom Hardy's excellent dual performance as Eddie and voicing the symbiote with menace, which kind of expresses his acting range.

However, Tom Hardy's performance as the Venom character is the sole focus as the main reliance in a gamble of getting the character right. When giving all the theatrical attention to the titular performance, the film is flawed as evidenced throughout the first half with a slow pacing till it picks up as soon the character fully appears for alarming thrill that powered up the action-packed veins. Then throughout the film's duration, the unbalanced focus in writing resulted in an awkward script that hindered the film from meeting the MCU's minimum. That's not all in writing when humor was pleasantly attempted to lighten up the restricted darkened nature that radiates from the character who has no Deadpool-like free treatment.

"Venom" is an enjoyable treat with an understandable tackle under a similar narrative logic to stand its own "within" a larger universe, while benefitting from Hardy's performance as a successful gamble as a faithfully corrected centerpiece of the action from a still unbalanced focus. Now, let's see what their next move is in not squandering a promised potential they have been persistently considering while maintaining the solo entertainment value for now. (B+).