Venom is a 2018 comedy dark superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the first film in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters. It is followed by two sequels: Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which was released on October 1, 2021, and Venom: The Last Dance, which is scheduled for release on October 25, 2024.
Plot[]
While trying to take down Carlton Drake, the CEO of Life Foundation, Eddie Brock, a journalist, investigates experiments of human trials. Unwittingly, he gets merged with a symbiotic alien with lethal abilities.
Why It's Great[]
- It turned Eddie Brock and Venom from generic Spider-Man villains to likeable antiheroes. The one that was improved the most with this change was Eddie since here he's a good man that lost his career and his girlfriend due to try to unmask the Life Foundation, also Venom was outcasted from his own kind because he wanted to have a bonding with his hosts.
- There are some gruesome moments and effects that are quite effective.
- Tom Hardy is a big improvement over Topher Grace as Eddie Brock. This incarnation of Eddie Brock is more sympathetic, his reaction to having the symbiote in his body is more accurate to how a real person would react to getting infected with a parasite that make its host a cannibal. His performance as Eddie Brock was also great.
- The CGI is really good and effective.
- Venom is given a proper characterization that is entertaining to watch and properly captures his goofball character in the comics. His motivations are purely selfish rather than heroic.
- Carlton Drake is a fairly interesting antagonist.
- The dynamic between Eddie and Venom is fun to watch. Rather than the two immediately bonding, there's plenty of back and forth between them as Venom often bullies Eddie while Eddie wants Venom to only devour bad people.
- Plenty of funny moments.
- “We are Venom”.
- Awesome soundtrack composed by Ludwig Göransson.
- Epic final battle between Venom and Riot.
- Venom's self-sacrifice for the sake of Eddie's life is a powerful moment, even if it turns out to be a fake death.
- The post-credits scene of Eddie visiting Cletus Kasady in prison is a great set-up for the sequel.
Bad Qualities[]
- It doesn’t have any connection to Spider-Man.
- All of the action scenes take place at night. However since Venom is a big black monster he can be hard to see in the dark.
- The other symbiotes are underutilized heavily, especially Carnage, who only appears once to setup the sequel and apparently had an hour of scenes removed. The only symbiotes in the movie who are that important are Venom himself and Riot.
- It's never established whether or not symbiotes only need a minuscule part of itself in a host to survive and the film never explains how Venom survived the explosion of the Life Foundation rocket at all.
Reception[]
Despite receiving negative reviews from film critics, the film was highly positively welcomed from audiences and Venom fans alike.
Box Office[]
Venom ha incassato $ 213,5 milioni negli Stati Uniti e in Canada e $ 642,6 milioni in altri territori, per un totale mondiale lordo di $ 856,1 millions.