WARNING: Spoilers ahead!

I have seen less superhero movies in my lifetime than the average American. Perhaps now, after reading only two sentences of this article, you are already clicking out of the tab solely based on my level of credibility, but I must stop you there, because a promising review lies ahead of you.

“Venom”, starring Tom Hardy as investigative journalist Eddie Brock, is based off of the Marvel comic series by the same name. The film begins with a plane crash in Malaysia that kills the crew and releases some dangerous cargo that was aboard. Brock, a resident of San Francisco, California, is working on a project involving the prominent organization, Life Foundation, headed by Carlton Drake. The company focuses on researching symbiotic life forms, hoping to conduct trials on humans, which Brock’s fiancee, Anne Weying is an attorney for. Brock interviews Drake and confronts him about the recent trials, causing him to lose his job and Weying to end their relationship. Brock is then contacted by Dora Skirth, a scientists for Drake, who disagrees with his methods and wants to expose him.

While visiting the Life Foundation lab, Brock is attacked by a symbiote and not long after that he displays symptoms of the parasite taking over his body. Drake discovers that a symbiote is missing and eventually discovers that it was Skirth who let Brock into the lab, sending his henchmen off on a manhunt to find the last known symbiote. Weying notices strange behaviors in Brock, as the symbiote starts to introduce itself as Venom and communicate through Brock.

Eventually, the symbiote that escaped the ship’s crash, Riot, reaches San Francisco and hops from host to host until he reaches Drake. Brock and Venom, who are bonded under the mutual agreement to use their powers in order to protect Earth from symbiote kind and fight Drake and Riot, who want to use symbiotes on Earth by taking a spaceship to collect them all. The two sides fight and finally Brock and Venom win by setting fire (one of the symbiote species’ weaknesses) to the ship that Riot and Drake are on, killing them both.

The aspects of the film that stood out to me were the picture quality, as well as the perfectly placed comedic moments. I was absolutely mesmerized by the action scenes during the film, as the attention to detail was so finely tuned that the pictures felt hyper-realistic and almost surreal. The animation that created Venom was truly spectacular and almost felt 3D-like. The pockets of comedy that were woven into the film were a nice touch that provided relief in some of the heavier spots. I especially enjoyed the character Venom, as he surpassed my initial expectations of being too serious and controlling, but rather he was much more relatable and provided some internal thought, even when Brock had little to no dialogue.

On the other hand, I felt as though the writers focused too heavily on the development of the plot leading up to the contraction of Drake and Riot, so that the audience was unable to actually see why Venom and Brock bonded in the first place. At first, I was unable to understand the reasoning behind the bond and the conflict that the two characters experience both between themselves and each other.

“Venom” is a film designed to entertain those who enjoy fast-paced action and elements of sci-fi, as well as dash of comedy.

Rating: 8/10