Review: Venom (Carson’s View)

Before walking into Venom, you must remember that while this is a Marvel movie it is not a Marvel Studios movie. This was made by Sony. Sony has struggled mightily in the past with the superhero genre. And while they are getting better, the struggle remains.

Getting Tom Hardy to star as Eddie Brock was a definite win for this franchise. Riz Ahmed was another key addition for Sony to turn their fortunes around. However, enlisting the same screenwriter that brought you Amazing Spider-Man 2, the Dark Tower, and The 5th Wave was probably a poor choice.

Venom is a franchise that needs an R rating. Venom not only kills people, he eats people. That’s what he does. “Kid Friendly” and Venom do not mix. Something was missing in this movie, and I can’t help but think it was all the scenes that were removed to make this a PG-13 version.

With the exception of the slow first 20 minutes, everything seemed to be a bit rushed. Most importantly, the relationship between Venom and Eddie. More time exploring their new situation could have brought more depth to the movie and the characters. The computer generated images were not great, but were tolerable and necessary for this character to come to life. This is by far the best version of Venom we have seen to date, which isn’t really saying much. (Looking at you, Topher.)