Alrighty, to recap, I’m not the
biggest fan of Sony’s separate Spider-Man universe in principle, and I’m somewhat
baffled by the choice of Michael Morbius, the Bat-themed Curt Connors, to be
their second entry into this multifilm franchise. And since I brought it up, now
seemed like a reasonable time to finally sit down and look over the first entry
into Sony’s Spider-Verse, Venom. Yes, this is my first time viewing this movie.
No, I don’t see every superhero relate thing that comes out, just the ones that
interest me. And yes, I’m aware this is probably going to hurt me on an
emotional level at the very least. Finally, I'm going to try to use gender-neutral pronouns for Venom and their ilk. Symbiotes are technically asexual, and while the usual short hand is to refer to the symbiote by the gender of it's current host, it's 2020, so I figured I at least should update my vocabulary a little. Alright, enough preamble, let’s get to it.
We open on a space shuttle making a
return trip to Earth. The shuttle radios back to mission control that they’re
on there way, and that they have the specimens secure. Right before one of the mentioned
specimens breaks free and starts slaughtering people on reentry. The ship crash
lands in Malaysia. A recovery team is dispatched and they begin removing the specimens.
The owner of said space shuttle, Carlton Drake and his head researcher Dr.
Skirth are watching the recovery remotely. They discover that one of the four
specimens are missing and that one of the astronauts, Jameson, is still alive!
They get him into an ambulance and try to rush him to a hospital. In route,
however, Jameson sits up, engulfs both EMT’s in the ambulance with tentacles
that manifest from his body and cause a massive wreck. I think we found the alien!
Also, that escalated quickly. And finally, no one tell J. Jonah that his son is
probably definitely dead. One of the EMT’s escapes, very clearly wounded, but
black ooze appears over her various cuts, scrapes and one visibly broken bone
and she continues walking. That’s probably not good.
 |
| Oh yeah, Eddie is afraid of heights. I'm sure that won't be important to the story. <eye roll> |
We then cut over to San Francisco…
kay… I guess we’re doing the polar opposite of Marvel’s usual New York centric
stories. Anyway, reporter Eddie Brock is rudely awoken by his lawyer fiancé Anne
Weyling. They have some cutesy couple moments, to reinforce how happy they are,
which I’m sure won’t be affected by the alien parasites crash landing on earth.
Oo, it’s been a while since sarcasm hurt that bad. Eddie drives to his office
on his motorcycle, while we get a montage of images of him doing various news
stories. In this universe Eddie is a TV reporter with his own segment… kay… he
makes it to his office and chats with his boss, Jack. After making a crack
about not caring for the view because “Heights not really my thing,” we learn
that Eddie is going to interview Carlton Drake. Drake is a big CEO of the Life Foundation,
and the owner of the rocket that crash landed earlier. Eddie is immediately
against the idea, as he has moral issues with interviewing someone as obviously
corrupt as Drake, but Jack insists. Sending an in your face reporter to do a
puff-piece. I’m not even going to use sarcasm here, that’s flipping moronic and
everyone involved should know it.
Over dinner that night, Eddie tells
Anne about the interview and his dislike for her ‘boss.’ She actually works for
a private legal firm that represents the Life Foundation, so it’s a tomato/tomato
potato/potato situation. After dinner and some hanky-panky, Eddie gets up that
night and sees that Anne got an email on her computer. He violates every bit of
trust that should exist in a committed relationship and reads her email. He
sees several confidential documents as part of a wrongful death lawsuit. Again,
no sarcasm, this will bite him in the ass.
The next day, we’re shown Carlton
Drake leading a children’s tour group through his facility. He’s interrupted by
Dr. Skirth to remind him of his interview with Brock. Eddie interviews Drake.
At first he sticks to the puff-piece questions about the rockets and such, we
learn that Drake is a self-made millionaire and built his fortune from at a young
age. But then switches over to questions about his pharmaceutical practices and
human experimentation and other unsavory topics. Drake cuts off the interview,
and tells Eddie “Have a nice life,” as he’s dragged away.
The next day, Eddie is fired for
pissing off a millionaire, Anne is fired for giving Eddie his info (no I have
no idea how they found this out for sure), and Anne breaks up with Eddie.
Meanwhile, Drake’s crews bring in
the three captured symbiotes. As Drake looks at the wriggling ooze in jars, he
claims they’re beautiful. Dude is clearly insane. And, back in Malaysia, the rogue alien controlling the EMT makes it to town, rips the head off an eel and attacks
several individuals that object to their theft and murdered of the eel’s owner.
The symbiote then transfers themselves to a new host who then wanders off.
 |
| Shame that Venom can't appreciate Dare by Stan Bush what with his allergy to loud noises. |
We then jump forward six months.
Drake’s scientists determined that the symbiotes require a host body to merge
with to survive in an oxygen rich environment. And that, unless the host is compatible
with the symbiote, like an organ transplant, they will reject and eat the host. Okay, so not totally like an organ transplant. They found this out using bunnies. Drake insists that they move to human trials,
despite Skirth’s reservations. Also, I’m super disappointed we didn’t get to
see a Venom-Bunny.
We then rejoin Eddie. He’s now routinely
burning through his cash getting drunk, is behind on all of his bills, and is
just constantly miserable. So, he and Peter Parker now have a few things in
common. He buys a free newspaper off a homeless lady and has moral qualms about
seeing the local convenience store being shaken down for money, just to
reinforce he’s not a bad guy. He goes home to his shabby apartment and tries to
sleep while his neighbor plays electric guitar at max volume.
Back at the Life Foundation, Drake
has his scientists bring in homeless people to experiment on. The first one, a
fella named Isaac, bonds with the symbiote, seems to do fine for a minute, but
then is eaten from the inside. You know, that old horror chestnut. Drake rather
callously calls for the next volunteer, much to Dr. Skirth’s horror.
The next day, Eddie walks downtown
and notices his homeless friend isn’t at her usual spot. He goes into his convenience
store, and starts off talking to himself, only be revealed that he’s telling
Dr. Skirth in the next aisle that she’s terrible at tailing. She tells him
about the human experiments and death, but Eddie blows her off. He stops by his
ex-girlfriend’s place, sees her and her new boyfriend (really quick rebound
from your fiancé, just sayin’), and goes to the Golden Gate Bridge to stare off
into space. He then decides to call Skirth and agrees to help her. She sneaks
him into the Life Foundation. On the way she explains that the Life Foundation found
a comet filled with the creatures while exploring space looking for planets to colonize.
Not sure someone could hide a space shuttle that advanced from the public, but
I’ve learned to pick my battles. They’re separated when Skirth gets stopped by
a guard. On his own, Eddie takes photos of the facility, the patience, and
their info. He sees his homeless friend as one of their experiments. He frees
her after setting off an alarm, she attacks and infects him with her symbiote
before dying.
Eddie escapes the lab, showing off
his new super strength and speed, and ultimately ditches pursuit after jumping
into a tree. He gets home and is clearly feeling ill. He’s sweating profusely
and pretty much eats anything in his apartment remotely edible. He throws up, hears
a mysterious voice in his head, and seems to knock himself out.
 |
| Took about half the movie to get here, but, damn it, I have to admit that that is a pretty awesome Venom smile. |
Back at the lab, Drake learns about
the missing Symbiote and demands his crew find it. He’s also informed that
another host has survived and seems to be recovering from the bonding process.
Also, while that’s going on, the rogue symbiote made their way to an airport
and seems to be moving onto their new host.
Eddie wakes up, and starts
wandering around downtown. He finds Anne and her boyfriend Dan on a date and
tries to tell her about what happened. But he’s talking like he’s high out of
his mind. Dan determines that Eddie is ill and keeps the restaurant from calling
the cops. Even after Eddie sits in the lobster tank and eats one alive. Dan
takes Eddie in to have an MRI. The symbiote starts flipping out the moment that
the MRI is switched on, Dan turns the machine off and pulls Eddie out. He sends
Eddie home, tells him to get some rest, and that he will call Eddie once they
get the results of a few of his tests.
Back at the lab, Skirth is found
out and captured by the security team. Drake’s team also discovers that while
the patient bonded with the suit, the Symbiote is eating the host from the inside
out. They also discovered that the creature is susceptible to intense sound.
Eddie makes it home, hearing the symbiote
in his head demanding food the whole time. Anne and Dan call Eddie and let him
know about his test results. They determined that he’s got a fever and hearing
things due to a parasite. They seem to ignore his comments about having
superpowers, too. When Dan claims they’ll get him on some meds to get rid of
the parasite, the symbiote tells Eddie “Never going to happen.” He then scares
the piss out of his guitar playing neighbor when the noise hurts the symbiote.
Meanwhile, Drake is trying to get
Skirth to tell him what happened. He keeps trying the good guy vibe with her,
even when it’s clear he’s evil. She falls for it, though, and tells him her
partner was Eddie. She’s exposed to their one surviving symbiote as punishment.
Oh no.
Eddie is then attacked at his
apartment by the Life Foundation’s goons. The Symbiote (FINALLY) manifests and
starts knocking the goons around with their tentacles. After escaping, Eddie
sees his full Venom form in his reflection. They have an argument about whether
Venom counts as a parasite or not, but they’re interrupted by more goons. Eddie
and Venom lead the guards on a massive chase across downtown San Francisco,
ending with Venom fully manifesting and leaping into the bay to escape. Out on
the water, Eddie and Venom are finally introduced. Venom tells Eddie that they need Eddie as a host to get to the Life Foundation rocket. If he cooperates,
Venom promises not to eat his internal organs. It's a good deal.
Meanwhile, the rogue Symbiote, in
the body of a little girl, lands at the airport and wanders off. And we’re
shown that both Skirth and the symbiote she was forcibly bonded with are dead.
Drake is clearly growing unstable. He tells his security team that they need to
bring Eddie and the one surviving suit in.
Dan calls Anne and lets her know
that Eddie is way sicker than they thought. She makes it to his apartment and
finds the block trashed. Eddie, meanwhile, tries to leave his phone at his
former boss’s office but is stopped by security. Eddie refuses to let the symbiote
eat him. They suit up and then climb the building. They almost fall to their
deaths when a landing plane disrupts the symbiote, but they recover and leave
the phone at the office. As he tries to leave, SWAT comes in to try and stop
him. He laughably beats the snot out of SF’s finest. Anne arrives as Venom almost
eats a police man. She convinces them to come back to the hospital. A drone
follows their car.
At the Life Foundation, Drake meets
the possessed child. The other suit attacks him and forcibly bonds with him.
 |
| Shame to see fathers and sons fighting. Even if the movie never brings up that fact. |
At the hospital, Dan tells Eddie
that the suit is literally eating him from the inside. His heart has started to
atrophy (does that science?). Dan tries to convince Eddie of how much danger he’s
in, while Venom tells him it’s not as bad as it seems. Anne switches on the
MRI, forcibly separating Eddie and Venom. They seal the creature in the MRI
room, but they escapes through the airducts and possesses a dog. Eddie is picked
up by Life Foundation goons.
Can Eddie and Venom reunite and
stop Riot and Drake’s evil plan? Watch the movie to find out. Oh, and the rogue
symbiote is named Riot. You don’t hear their name until the lasts twenty minutes
or so.
Alright, so the bad first. This movie’s
first half is rather dull. We go over 40 minutes before Eddie and Venom bond
and start interacting even a little. In an hour and a half movie, that’s a long
time to go before seeing your title character. Anne’s new boyfriend Dan was a
pretty pointless character. He was really just there to give Eddie free medical
care, and to create an unnecessary love triangle between Eddie, Anne, and
himself. They could have done the free healthcare thing by making Anne a
doctor, or maybe just make it an insane coincidence that Eddie meets a doctor
that was a huge fan of his before his show was cancelled. The fact that the
villain’s name wasn’t even dropped until the final bit of the movie was just
irritating. It pissed me off in Spider-Man 3, and it’s just annoying a
decade and a half later. Finally, Venom deciding to work with Eddie to protect Earth
from his own people kind of comes out of nowhere. The movie claims that Eddie
changed Venom… but Eddie spent their entire time together complaining, feeling
ill, and just not enjoying being around the creature. Not sure why that’d make
them want to stay on Earth.
 |
| Alright, another begrudging "This was a cool shot" head nod. |
Onto the good, what little there is
to be had. I liked the effects on the Venom symbiote and their fellows. They
almost seemed to be there during a lot of their scenes. And while they gave
Venom a fair amount of cosmetic changes to make him seem less affiliated with
Spider-Man, his new design is still worlds better than the Spider-Man 3
creature we were given over a decade ago. And the Symbiote as Eddie’s shoulder
devil was just kind of fun in places. I particularly liked this joke where,
standing atop the tall building of his former office Venom egged him on
shouting “Jump!” only to immediately call him a “Pussy” for electing to take
the elevator. I was tempted to put this in the bad section since there’s so little
of them and they appears so late in the game, but hey, I’ll give the movie this
freebie. Tom Hardy was giving a 100% in every scene he’s in. Though, I will say
he works better once he’s a bitter disenfranchised former reporter than the supposedly
nice but tough journalist he was before. What? Eddie Brock is a jerk, that has
been his main character trait for decades now. And while I heavily condensed
it, the chase scene throughout SF was really cool. While racing around San Fran
on Eddie’s motorcycle, we got to see Venom show off a host of their powers,
from more liquid tendrils to sticking cars together with its amorphous body. It
looked really cool. It just didn’t contribute much to the plot.
Here’s some changes that I though was
just kind of weird. I know very little about Venom on his home planet, but the
claim that he’s “kind of a loser” back home has never come up. Riot is actually
one of Venom’s less famous offspring, being the younger sibling of Carnage. They’re
usually seen with their siblings Phage, Lasher, and Agony, whom have fused together
with one host to form Hybrid, and a fifth sibling Scream. And, while the younger
generations do seem to have a greater ability to shapeshift than their parent,
Venom is shown to be physically superior to their children. Symbiotes, while
capable of eating flesh, mainly subsist on a diet of adrenaline from their
hosts. Part of the reason Venom stuck with Eddie for so long was that he had an
adrenaline secreting tumor, guaranteeing that they’d be fed well. The other part
being their combined hatred of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. And finally, I was
rather surprised to find out that the Life Foundation is from the Spider-Man
canon. But, rather than a space exploring private company, they were more of a
secret cabal prepping for the nuclear war that would destroy earth but let
their bigwigs rule the irradiated husk left over. They kidnapped Venom and forcibly removed and accelerated
the growth of their children, Phage, Riot, Agony, Lasher, and Scream hoping to
use Symbiote hosts as their private police force. I could go on, but I’ve been
spouting off at length so let’s finish this up.
I’ll give this one a solid C-. Is
it a terrible movie? No, it’s still leagues better than Suicide Squad. Is
it a great movie? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. No. It’s
just okay. The amazing acting of Tom Hardy, and pretty cool effects don’t make
up for a lackluster plot. Riot actually has the same issue as their father in Spider-Man
3 in that they’re barely in the film at all. While Carleton Drake and the
Life Foundation were okay as villains, the group isn’t enough to carry the movie.
They really needed to get Eddie and Venom together significantly sooner, I
think, to have made this movie better. In summation, it’s an okay film. Not the
worst, but lightyears away from being great. It reminds me a bit of the DCEU,
some good ideas but not great execution. I doubt that Morbius will
improve things much, but I’d love to be proven wrong for once. And that’s all I
have to say about that.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/33541027
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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