Venom

Is there any room for any more superhero movies on this planet? Apparently yes because they make a shit ton of money but are there enough good screenwriters and directors to usher these same but different stories along its path?

I’m not entirely sure, as Sony Studios latest Marvel project (I know I’m confused by how that works too as Disney owns Marvel) Venom, languishes into theaters this weekend with some hits but far too many misses.

Venom, or the symbiote organism that it is, comes to Earth with a bunch of buddies after an interspace expedition for extraterrestrial life funded by the powerful billionaire Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), crash lands somewhere in Asia upon arrival.

One of the symobites brought back, later revealed as “Riot” escapes the wreckage by hosting one of the survivors body and takes a leisurely 6 month walk through unknown parts of Asia as an 80-year-old lady before deciding to hitch a ride as a 6-year-old blond girl bound to San Francisco.

Which is great timing because that gives Eddie, (Tom Hardy) the once famous and highly respected San Francisco based investigative journalist time to crash out, loose his job, finance and all self-respect after taking on Drake and his sketchy experimental procedures and having Drake clap back at him.

Thus, after a laborious exhibition during the fist 40 minutes or so we get our story and our fun as Eddie unexpectantly takes on the symboite of Venom.

I could concentrate on the weak intro, the sloppy editing, jumbled plot but lets concentrate on the good. With the introduction of Venom the movie going public has another anti-hero to root for not named Deadpool.

You don’t know it going in but Venom turns out to be somewhat of a buddy comedy that works pretty well. Venom is all-powerful in this world and doesn’t quite understand the whole laws, morality and biting peoples’ heads off is wrong kind of thing and Eddie is there to kind of tow the line.

Eat the bad, save the good.

There’s a plot that develops further down the road as Venom must face off against Riot, now in the body of Drake, to save the world but the best development through this story is the relationship between Venom and Eddie as they choose to stick by each other for better or worse.

In the end I wouldn’t call it a polished up turd. More like a polished grapefruit. Once the shinny coat wears off you realize it’s just a grapefruit. Nothing special, but some may like and some will not.