Review of Venom (2018) by Jake C — 24 Dec 2018

What is this but sheer cynicism overtaking the screen, a protean and shiny sort of blackness here at last having wholly enveloped Sonyï¿ 1/2(TM)s once earnest attempts at the Spidey universe. There is no overriding sensibility guiding the shift from renegade truth-seeking hero to vigilante antihero, itï¿ 1/2(TM)s just sheer survival and vengeanceï¿ 1/2"as much by the studio as by Brock and the Symbiote.

Sharingï¿ 1/2"as Sony must now do with Marvelï¿ 1/2"is at best a necessary evil, to embrace only to ward off atrophy and death, which alienness (whether from mainland Asia or from an extraterrestrial comet) inevitably brings to the idealistically egoistic.

An actual message about the existential threat facing all the globe is mere pretext for a slim, formulaic, utterly un-menacing villain, whose (much more urgent and real) concerns are cast aside to satiate a hunger for personal revenge and heroic glory, without even the hospitality and charity to offer the audience a decent action romp.