Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to have a monopoly over the superhero franchise. With DC’s Superman and Batman possibly put on the back burner it’s up to Marvel to step up to the plate and show the world what they are made of. Director Ruben Fleischer (“Zombieland”, “Gangster Squad”) believes he has to solution with the October 2018 release of his Venom that stars Tom Hardy, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) as Eddie Brock, an unemployed journalist down on his luck who does some snooping around in a lab ran by mad scientist Drake (Riz Ahmed), known for his role in “Star Wars: Rogue One” (2016), and becomes infected with a slimy, yucky, alien substance that gives him incredible super powers.
All this is credited to an unknown spaceship crashing in Malaysia and tagging along with it a dark goo symbiote. At first the extraterrestrial visits many human hosts by attaching itself to before taking up residency with Eddie Brock and maintaining a consistent deep-voiced dialogue with him as it’s his therapist. Eddie soon bounces off anything he can as Drake’s henchmen try to corral him as in a lot of sci-fi flicks. Eddie comes across like a doofus on crack and although his journalist job didn’t pan out or his relationships, he found his nitche as another super-hero. And in order to keep his body alive he must bring out his alter-ego Venom to stay alive. There is lots of violence and head biting in this movie for just a PG-13 rating. It should have been given an R. Since he signed up for a trilogy, maybe the next one(s) will be as it had too much editing the first go-round.
Venom was first associated with Spider-Man. He is an sentient alien with an amorphous, liquid like-form who requires a host, normally human to bond with for survival. Both Eddie and his attached buddy need each other in order to live. That new dual life form refers to itself as Venom. Venom first appearance was “The Alien Costume” in ‘”The Amazing Spider-Man # 252 May, 1984 and more recently in the 2007 Sony release “Spider-Man 3” and is now one of Spider-Man’s archenemies and is ranked the 22nd greatest comic book villans of all time out of a list of 100.
This movie is comical as is Brook’s character and is interlaced with a sloopy script but darn it, I liked the way it kept me entertained after the first 70 minutes. Adding to the wonderful mix is Michelle Willams (“The Greatest Showman”) Scott Haze, Reid Scott and Jenny Slate .The special effects were incredible and please stick around for not only Stan Lee’s cameo but something else at the end of the credits. It will have to compete with “A Star Is Born” this opening weekend. may the best Star win.. The film is rated PG-13, runs for 1 hr 52 min. Tom Hardy’s committed performance in this film will lead him to a pretty pay day. A special shout out to costume designer Kelli Jones. The never get enough love. B rating.
