Film Review: Venom (2018)

~ beetleypete

**No Spoilers**

I don’t usually watch any films associated with the Marvel franchise, but this one was on TV. Tom Hardy is in it, and so is Riz Ahmed, both excellent British actors. So I recorded it, and then forgot about it.

Then last night, Julie went out with a friend, so I flicked through the recordings on the PVR and decided to give it a go.

This will be a short review.

A wicked businessman is funding space explorations. He discovers aliens, and brings them back to carry out experiments using their tissue.
(Which looks a lot like fast-moving congealed spaghetti, in various colours)

Some of his test subjects die, but others get super powers.

Tom Hardy plays a hard-hitting investigative reporter who gets fired for an aggressive interview of Riz Ahmed’s wicked businessman, losing his girlfriend in the process.

At some point in the film, Tom becomes infected. He survives, and is now host to an alien that speaks to him in English, and is able to take over his body when it likes.

Cue a great deal of CGI and special effects, a lot of chasing around, and few bad people getting their heads bitten off by the alien.

You can guess the rest.

If you like this kind of thing more than I do, and don’t mind actors of great talent wasting their time to earn the big bucks, here’s a trailer.

42 thoughts on “Film Review: Venom (2018)”

  3. Seems like the actors are now out of favour for you! 🙂 I have read an actor’s interview somewhere where he admitted that he has worked in some shitty movies. He doesn’t even talk about his only movie with animation. 😀

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  11. Right…I was skeptical about this one, but interested because of Tom Hardy…like you. Too bad, sometimes these graphic novel movies can be very good, but they’re a lot like musicals, for me anyway…I very rarely like them, even the good ones. Excellent review, Pete. It’s hard to write a good negative review, don’t you think?

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    1. It depends on the film I think. Marvel has such a huge fan base, few people are going to go along with any negative reviews, or even read past the first criticism.
      (I did like ‘Deadpool’, for the self-mockery)
      Thanks, Pam.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. It was a sad waste of resources, wasn’t it? I’ve reached the point when I can say that the best film I’ve seen for a year is the old Three Musketeers film from 1973 – joyous at the time and now remarkable for its mix of seminal comedy and decorative design (and regrettably H&S violations etc). Big names sending themselves up with panache, instead of today’s calculated meta-irony. (Is that a thing? Probably.)

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  18. With regard to my own attitude towards this sort of ‘monster’ film, I think that’s a very fair review, Pete 😀 I’m not a fan of the horror genre as a whole, and the image of the monster in the still from the film clip is enough to put me right off! I have watched some of the Marvel franchise [because that’s exactly what it is: a money-machine], and some of them are good, IMO of course, but they are all heavily effects-driven. Given that my lovely younger daughter works in that industry, I suppose I shouldn’t whinge about that too much 😉 Anyway, I think I’ll give this one a miss! Cheers, Jon.

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    1. The sequel comes out soon, and I won’t be bothering with that. 🙂
      I actually enjoy horror films as a rule, and ‘alien’ films, like ‘Predator’. But these comic franchise films are far too ‘cosy’ for me.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  19. i’m not big into the superhero/comicbook movies, but i know they are huuuuuuuugely popular with many. one of my grandsons loves them and well as the millions of others, adults and chlldren, who anxiously await each film.

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