Venom (Blu-Ray + DVD + Digital HD)

Blu-Ray Reviews | Dec 28th, 2018

Venom
Image used with permission for review purposes.

Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott
Written By: Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, Kelly Marcel
Directed By: Ruben Fleischer
Studio: Sony
Buy On Amazon.com

I had no desire to see Venom but I’ve heard mixed things about it so I decided to give it a chance. The movie is really flawed but it was at least entertaining enough that I would watch a sequel if one is made.

The movie is about Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), an investigative journalist who loses his job and fiancee. While trying get the dirt on the Life Foundation, a symbiotic life form called Venom transfers to his body and overtakes Eddie. The creature wants to take over Earth and feed on lots of people, Eddie tries to prevent that from happening and enlists the help of his ex-fiancee Anne Weying (Michelle Williams). Meanwhile, Life Foundation CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) sends hired guns after Eddie since he has the symbiote.

Venom is a weird one because a lot things just aren’t that great in it, but it still works in a way. I obviously have a lot of questions about some things that Ruben did. Things certainly could have been better in areas. The movie felt like something we got in the early ‘00s when comic book movies were maybe once every two years. Lots of CGI, but the CGI wasn’t too bad. I’m just curious why they made Venom look like Spider-Man when he wasn’t in the movie? I was waiting for some reference to him in the movie like video on TV of him, or a picture hanging on the wall to justify it. But nope, just randomly looks like Spider-Man. It’s also weird because it’s a Marvel movie, but not apart of MCU. It even has Ron Cephas Jones in this as another character, which is silly since he was in Luke Cage.

I did like some of the action, like when Venom takes control of the fight in Eddie’s apartment. I liked when Venom spoke and that character, but just didn’t care for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock all that much. His accent was all over the place and hard to understand as usual. I thought the funniest moment in the movie was when Venom called Eddie a wimp. There were some funny scenes in the movie, which was nice. I thought the Venom character turned “good” too abruptly in the movie, which just felt all of a sudden. One minute he’s ripping people’s heads off (well what they could show), and then the next minute he’s trying to save Earth. I felt like I blink and missed some subplots like Anne taking over Venom to save Eddie from Drake’s men. I must have had my head down at the computer or something. Besides that, the editing felt like it was all over the place.

I can’t really tell you how this compares to the comics since I never read them. I collected the first Venom/Spider-Man comics but never opened them. The only Venom material I got over the years was from comic books covers that I collected and Spider-Man 3 and we all know how that one turned out. Is this better than that movie? Yeah, I think so but I don’t think everybody will be happy with the final result. With licensing headaches between Sony and Marvel, it can make things tricky and probably the reason why Spider-Man didn’t at least make a cameo in this. I wish there was a way to sneak something in though; I’m sure Marvel nerds will spot lots of easter eggs.

The extras include deleted/extended scenes, bringing Venom from comics to the big screen, how Eddie and Venom are anti-heroes, and then there’s featurettes on the action scenes, character’s design, easter eggs and more! Kevin Smith was all over the bonus material, you’d think he was the one that directed this. One has to wonder if he got paid to appear to bump this up to give some comic book fans reason to like the movie if they had their doubts. There’s a lot to watch after you see the movie, and certainly is cool to see some of the behind the scenes stuff.

Venom isn’t a movie I’d go out of my way to see but if it was on TV, I might put it on. Tom Hardy’s performance is a bit out there, and still hard to understand him at times. His accent comes and goes throughout the movie. I kind of wish they just made Eddie Brock British so Hardy couldn’t use an American accent. There’s enough in this movie that I can appreciate it for what it is, but there’s definitely a lot of problems with it. The action is fun, even though it’s a bit hard to see what’s going on when Venom is fighting. The ending with Woody Harrelson looked promising, and certainly makes me want a sequel. Let’s hope they correct the issues I had with it and makes a better movie next time.

Features:
Venom Mode
Deleted & Extended Scenes
From Symbiote to Screen
The Anti-Hero
The Lethal Protector in Action
Venom Vision
Designing Venom
Select Scenes Pre-Vis
Music Videos

Video:
Resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio:
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
French: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles:
English, English SDH, French, Spanish

Bottom Line: A messy, flawed comic book movie but was still entertaining
Running Time: 112 mins
Rating: PG-13
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating:

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