Venom review: Not as bad as critics say!

A couple days ago on Halloween, after sending the last batch of school lunches, my Mum and I decided to go to the cinema and see Venom; it had come out earlier this October, but we're really bad at planning family outings (and I think my Dad didn't want to see it at all due to some bad reviews; I'll talk about this later). 

So we decided... screw it! Let's watch it without them before it's gone from cinemas!

Alright, I'm going to try to keep it mostly spoiler-free, but I can't guarantee it since I'm not sure what counts as plot relevant sometimes.

The beginning got me hooked. A rocket crashes into East Malaysia (not biased because it was set in my country, I swear!) and it's pretty hectic from the get go. I won't go into detail, but it was straight into action; no dawdling around with too much exposition. This scene pretty much sets the tone of the film; gritty, fast-paced, and somewhat chaotic.

We're introduced to Eddie Brock (played by the handsome Tom Hardy) a while after; a hard-hitting investigative journalist in San Francisco who exposes the corrupt and unethical practices of big names. A real social justice warrior, you might say. I think Tom Hardy's portrayal brings a certain roguish charm to Eddie. Despite his strong moral beliefs, he still seems laid-back and likeable, instead of coming across as some self-righteous asshole.

The plot begins to unfold after our hero Eddie messes up an important interview, and eventually we get to the point where he meets the symbiote. Now, here's where there are some... mistakes. I'll keep it vague to not give away anything too important, but Eddie basically waltzes around a high security area as if there were no cameras at all? Quite an oversight...

From here on, Eddie is bonded with the symbiote, and we get to see an interesting dynamic between parasite and host; their relationship evolves from the symbiote (Venom) using and protecting Eddie out of necessity to actually liking him. Eddie himself finds having superpowers pretty cool, even if it means being hungry all the time. Biting heads off, not so cool.

Pictured: Tom Hardy talking to himself

I think this is the part that the movie gets right, showing both the cons and the pros of having a symbiote bond with you, and this is where Tom Hardy shines as both Eddie and Venom. We see how both of them need each other to survive, and how Eddie struggles for control while loving his newfound power. Instead of one completely taking over the other, it's more of a "hybrid" relationship, where both Eddie and Venom can communicate with each other and work together. Their dynamic is somewhat akin to a "bromance", with the symbiote sometimes giving Eddie advice about his girlfriend, or asks if he can eat that guy's head (the answer is usually no).

The film comes to an end after some more exciting (and sometimes rather unnecessary) scenes as the story is wrapped up. They defeat the villain, there's a bunch of cool special effects, and of course, there's a Stan Lee cameo. As the credits rolled, I thought... wow. This was actually kind of awesome!

A beautiful mess of a fight scene.

Yeah, I'll admit, the script was awful in places, and the dialogue is sometimes strange and clunky. The story was rather unstructured and like I said earlier, there was a lot of oversight for a few details (like autumn leaves in Malaysia... we don't have autumn here!). But overall, it was fun. Good, violent, exciting, comic book style fun.

So why did critics hate it? It was sloppy, sure, but some critics said it was BORING. Really? I mean, it's not high art but it was a good popcorn flick! And comic book fans of Venom would be happy to hear that some lines were directly lifted from the comics ("Eyes, lungs, pancreas... so many snacks, so little time"), paying homage to the original source.

"Excuse me good sir, I was in line first."

This brings me to my final point: critics aren't always right. They're human, just like me and you, and sometimes, films don't have to be art to be fun. My Dad really missed out by listening to negative reviews.

If you want 112 minutes of Tom Hardy having cool alien superpowers, go watch it if it's still in cinemas! Just don't expect it to be that deep. I'd give this a solid 8/10 despite its flaws. Yeah, it's that fun.