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Venom [movie reaction]

When the trailer for Venom dropped months ago, you would not have expected the collective reaction of fans at the slimy Symbiote with a weird long tongue and scary teeth. Everyone had the hots for Venom and found the beast sexy. I really don't know whether to be amused or sigh at the human condition, but I get where it comes from. I just watched it and noticed that the movie critics were not so impressed but many fans loved it.

As for my opinion, I don't care what the critics say, Venom was fun. I thought I was going to see a man battling his identity and psychological-thriller level angst, but what I got was an unexpected gay romcom between Eddie and Venom. I do agree that there are some silly logical errors in the film, though.

Venom is actually one of the villains in the Spiderman stories and movies (which I admit I know close to nothing about though I've watched a few Avengers films), but this is a stand-alone film. Even if you know nothing of the original comics, you can still get the story.

What the hell seriously
I was anticipating this movie since there's Tom Hardy and I also want to see Riz Ahmed in another mainstream film. He played Bodhi Rook in Rogue One: a Star Wars story (read my review here), one of my favorite films ever.

The movie begins with a spaceship crashing in Malaysia. The body of an astronaut seems sick, and there is something like a parasite that invades the body and infects whoever touches it, then spreads. In the hidden labs of Life Foundation, they experiment on these 'parasites' to see if they can enhance the human body to make it survive in space. These alien parasites are known as 'symbiotes' can't survive without a human host, but so far all their experiments of joining a symbiote with a human body have failed.

Meanwhile, in America, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a gonzo news reporter. He was given the assignment to cover the company Life Foundation and it's shady CEO, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). Life Foundation has some shady business going on, like testing on humans and getting them killed. Eddie pushes these questions to Drake during an interview, and he's escorted out. This caused him to lose his job and his girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) leaving him. Eddie had snooped around in her e-mail for information on Life Foundation which in turn makes her lose her own job.

When one of the scientists of Life Foundation can't take the practices of Drake, she calls on Eddie for help. She takes him to where they perform these experiments, and Eddie accidentally unleashes a symbiote which invades his body. Eddie doesn't die like the previous subjects of the experiments, so Drake goes after him.

At first, Eddie doesn't realize that a sentient symbiote has invaded his body. He spends some time sick, and when Drake's men are really after him he lets the symbiote take over his body. The symbiote saves him then introduces himself as "Venom" and claims Eddie as his own. Meanwhile, the symbiote from the crash in Malaysia somehow finds itself in the Life Foundation and possesses Drake. Now, Venom and Eddie must try to stop them from letting the symbiotes invade Earth.

The portrayal was okay. Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock was perfect, and it's interesting to see Riz Ahmed play a villain. The antagonist is somewhat like a mix of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Steve Jobs. He has a point, but the means he uses to get to his goal is questionable.

What really shines in the movie is the relationship between Eddie and Venom. It's amusing to note that it evolves like a courtship - Eddie hesitant at first, then accepts it, then they break apart for a while only to come back together again (this time for good). Venom starts to like Eddie and says that they're sorta the same. Eddie's a loser, Venom says, but Venom himself says that he 'kinda a loser' in his own planet. Venom and Eddie sharing the same body leads to some funny interior monologue. Eddie looks like he's talking to himself a lot and he's getting some odd looks on the street when he's just talking to Venom inside him.


His ex Anne seems to have moved on quickly from Eddie. Her new boyfriend even helps Eddie out by testing him in the hospital and trying to find out his 'sickness'. Anyway, it's one of the few portrayals in a popular film of a healthy breakup and you can't really feel bad about Eddie - he ended up with Venom after all.

As for the story, it really offers nothing new. The effects on Venom were very good, but it's still the same superhero story. Someone gets invaded with an alien object that gives him powers, he's hesitant at first but learns to accept it. Overall, it's a good, fun film. The mid-credit scene suggests that there's a sequel, and since there's Woody Harrelson I'll watch that too.

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