“Look around at the world. What do you see?
A planet on the brink of collapse. Human beings are disposable. But man and
symbiote combined, this is a new race, a new species… a higher lifeform.” ~
Carlton Drake
“You have no idea how much you’re scaring
me right now.” ~ Anne Weying
“We cannot just hurt people.” ~ Eddie Brock
“Look in my eyes, Eddie. The way I see it… we can do whatever we want.” ~ Venom
Venom is a long standing character in the
Marvel comics universe, an antagonist to Spider-Man turned something of an
antihero with a very convoluted history. A combination of human host and alien
symbiote, the character is a darker sort, given to brain eating (but not in the
zombie sort of way) and mass mayhem, but still possessing a distorted kind of
ethical code. The character has turned up before on the big screen, as played
by Topher Grace (a bad casting choice) in Sam Raimi’s final part of his
original trilogy. Now the character turns up in a solo origin film in theatres,
with Tom Hardy taking the role and bringing it in a different direction.
A bioengineering corporation is exploring
space, discovering and capturing four symbiotic life forms and bringing them
back to earth. One of them escapes in transit, causing a crash, but the company
retrieves the other three. Its head, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), has obsessions
about the impending collapse of humanity and the ecosystem, plans for the
symbiotes, and little in the way of scruples about what he does to achieve his
aims. Eddie Brock (Hardy) is an investigative journalist looking into his
operations and balancing a life with his girlfriend Anne Weying (Michelle
Williams), who happens to be an attorney affiliated with Drake’s company.
Events ensue that throw Brock’s life into mayhem, including being infested with
one of the symbiotes, which includes superhuman powers.
Adapting Venom to the movies has been in
the works for a long time, dating all the way back to 1997. The character in
the comics has roots into the mid-eighties, fully established late in that
decade, and turned out to be so popular that writers started shifting his
perspective to give him more of a sympathetic stance. The character finally did
make it onto the big screen in Spider-Man 3, which while visually
speaking got the character generally right, did not work, as the script was
heavily problematic and Topher Grace was miscast in the role. With Spider-Man
finally in the Marvel cinematic universe proper, something of a sharing
relationship between Sony and Marvel Studios, a decision was made to develop
other films based on characters of the Spider-verse that could be left to their
own devices. The result is a standalone
film that doesn’t need to tie into the Marvel cinematic universe. Whether or
not it does is something left to the viewer to decide, but there aren’t
references or asides to the MCU.
The script and story are credited to three
writers- Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel, establishing the
character’s origins in a way that’s different from the comics universe, where
the symbiote was first thought to be a responds to thought new costume for
Spidey before it was revealed to be something alive. Its alien origins are
still preserved in the film, and multiple small touches of Venom’s comics
history make it to the story- the relationship with Anne, other symbiotes,
Eddie’s general personality and sense of fair play, and the Jekyll and Hide
back and forth between symbiote and host all feel familiar to those with a
sense of the comic book history. The weakness in the script, however, tends to
fall in its tone- there are times the film can’t decide if it’s a horror film
(symbiotes biting the heads off of people would qualify) or a bizarre sort of
buddy comedy.
Ruben Fleischer directs the film, and he
has an eclectic list of films already to his name. His debut was the zombie
comedy mashup Zombieland (Woody Harrelson, who starred in that film, has
a key cameo in this film). He followed that up with the black comedy 30
Minutes Or Less before moving into the gangsters and cops crime drama Gangster
Squad. The eclectic nature of his resume continues now with the superhero
genre. He paces the film fairly well- it doesn’t seem to drag. And he knows how
to stage the frantic energy of an action sequence, keeping the audience in the
mix of things without being overwhelmed.
There’s a fair bit of CGI involved in this-
the way symbiotes behave, for instance, body jumping or sliding on or off their
hosts for a bit of a direct conversation, for instance, is heavily CGI, and
much of what we see of them is more CGI than motion capture performance. And
yet the CGI doesn’t feel artificial, but blends into the real. The look of
Venom mostly fits what you’d expect out of the comics, the menacing bulk of
black and white with a long tongue. That also applies to other symbiotes seen
along the way- mostly seen in a symbiote referring to itself as Riot.
Riz Ahmed came to the attention of many
filmgoers with his role as Bodhi Rook, one of the band of misfits in the Star Wars tie in Rogue One. His character this time out is much less sympathetic, a
corporate tycoon who’s one of those ends justifies the means sort of guys. He
thinks humanity’s pretty much backed itself into a corner and that the only
means of salvation is something that happens to come from beyond the solar
system. And he doesn’t care about the methods he has to use to achieve those
goals, nor realize the full truth of what the symbiotes are. The role gives the
actor a chance to thoroughly chew the scenery- even literally before it’s all
said and done.
By whatever chance, I have never seen
Michelle Williams act. I wasn’t into Dawson’s
Creek, her breakout as a television actor, and I just haven’t seen any of
the various acclaimed movies she’s been in. So this was an introduction for me
to her as an actor. Anne Weying is someone of divided loyalties as the story
plays out- initially a love interest who happens to work as a lawyer for the
guy who turns out to be the big bad of the story. That changes as the story
goes along, and while she plays the role sympathetically and with spirit, the
part is more or less underwritten, a fault of the screenplay and not the
actress.
Tom Hardy is an actor with an eclectic
background and a lot of talent- unlike the first actor to bring Venom to the big
screen. Topher Grace has generally been on the shallow side of talent as an
actor, and his take on the character in Spider-Man
3 felt completely off. Here Hardy moves into his second comic book
character (after playing Bane in The Dark
Knight Rises) and gives the character an appropriate tone in how he plays
him. Eddie is determined, occasionally given to making rash decisions and
mistakes, but has a moral code- one that has a positive effect on his symbiote.
Hardy also voices the symbiote itself in cross conversations between the two,
creating a distinctly different tone in that vocal performance from Eddie. I
like Hardy’s take on the character (in part out of respect for the actor and in
part because his take is so much better than Topher’s, and what kind of name is
Topher?), and want to see him in the role again.
Venom takes a character familiar to comics readers and gives him a chance
to shine on the big screen. It’s largely successful in doing so- the
inconsistent tone and the underwriting of a major character aside- and it gives
an antihero rising to the occasion the right touch as it goes along. It’s not
as violent as it could be- imagine this with an R rating- but it entertains as
it goes along, establishing a place for itself as a different kind of comic
book adaptation.
