Movie Review: Venom

*starts in the alleyway*

Corporate Driver: *being tossed to the wall and tries to running away* Oh no...!! Get away from me!!

Anthony: *seriously walks at CD*

Corporate Driver: *crawls back* Go away...!! *grabs a empty bottle and throws on his knee*

Anthony: *gets hit but a bottle and tripped on the ground in pain on his knee*

Corporate Driver: *gets up and approaching him* Now, how'd you like that apple, kid?

Anthony: *grabs his throat, mysteriously healed and grows bigger to transforming into Venom*

Corporate Driver: No... No!!!

Venom (Anthony): Eyes... Lungs... Pancreas... So many snacks... So little time...

Secretary Driver: Hey you freak!! *grabs her gun to shoot him, but didn't effect from symbiote's body* Huh?!

Venom (Anthony): *looks at her then throws CD at SD like a rag doll and runs away by climbing on the wall to go back home*

Corporate Driver: Argh...! What the hell was that...?!

Hey everyone, my name is Anthony and welcome my new movie review with Halloween special. For this special, i decided to do three parts of my movie in this month of October, minus one called "First Man", which it has nothing to do with my Halloween special, because i will talk about next week.

Anyway, from many years ago, i always a huge fan of Spider-man to see various villains that we all know, like Vulture, Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Electrode, The Lizard or even Symbiote. When the 80's kicked in, comics are started to focus with dark with violence, disturbance and possibly fan-service, since in the late 70's where Gwen Stacy tragically died from Spider-man's (supposed) saving her from Green Goblin, causing the end of Silver age.

Since i like some Marvel characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Deadpool or The Punisher, but the one is like my number one favorite Anti-hero is Venom. Created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane (Yup, the same guy who created Spawn), Eddie Brock was started lone, stressed and depressed person where after he got fired from Daily Globe for making fake news about the wrong identity, not only he got fired, but also lost his apartment and his wife, that is until he was unexpectedly bonded by Symbiote in the church to seeking revenge at Spider-man and the rest is history.

Since we love Venom, we really want to see Eddie/Venom on the big screen. Such as Spider-Man 3 and it was...  Yeah, its not a very good casting choice with Topher Grace, an absolute embarrassment of our favorite character...  But after several years, we heard a report that Sony is gonna make a standalone movie with Venom and having Tom Hardy as a main role.

"Venom" is a 2018 superhero film directed by Ruben Fleischer, produced by Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach

 and Amy Pascal, and written by Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel (only for screenplay).

When i first heard about it, i was anticipating to see it and hope it will be better than Spider-man 3. From the development, the film was supposed to be a spin-off from Sam Raimi's Spider-man, but it got scrapped due to the decline from the third installment. But since Disney is already own Marvel, it will be pretty difficult to have Venom in MCU, since Sony own the rights. so, they decided to making their own Marvel Universe aside from MCU. And we're expected that the film was supposed to be R-Rated, since was known to be a anti-hero for murdering any bad guys like Deadpool did, but it was tone down to PG-13, which the potential is about to be concerned before the release, but hoped for the better.

So, with all that said, will this standalone holds up for Sony's first Marvel Universe film, or is it really deserves to crawling away from a high pitch frequency?

Well, lets find out.

The Story

It begins where a ship from "Life Foundation" was crash landing in the forest of Malaysia, they originally has four alien beings called "Symbiotes", but one of them broke out to bonding one pilot to breaking out of ambulance. Meanwhile, we introduce our main hero names Eddie Brock, who works as an investigation reporter of the news. However, while reporting of Life Foundation, he was on interview with the founder name Carlton Drake about their experiment, but also about the lawsuit that Drake doesn't want to hear about, which ended up where Brock confronting that he wants the truth, but the damage was done that he got fired and a break up from his love interest name Anne Weying. Six months later, he was on his own and wishes to be better than Life Foundation, but meets one scientist name Dora Skirth, but Dora wanted to talk to him for the secret truth about the foundation, which they're making experiment with Symbiote, which she asks him to check in, he accepted (despite the blame from the first meet) that she let him break in to see the evidence, but not before one subject was begging to break free, he did, but gone wrong when the Symbiote transferring at Brock. After that, he's starting to losing his control where he proceeds to eating his foods or even driving insane that he wanted to call for help. Despite that, he was also being targeted by Life, which they want the one Symbiote that Brock was bonded, its up to Eddie for not only survive himself, but also keeping Symbiote for its reason.

I find that the story itself is rather interesting, even though it would've give more interesting development, especially about the Symbiotes aside from Venom and Riot, say bonding at someone for the hosts, but no, they let one of them died from the lack of oxygen without the important host. But as far that i know, it rather focuses Eddie Brock and his Symbiote Venom for the development, but other times the writing could be questionable, especially some dialogues like "Going down to the street, like a turd in wind", like what the heck is this meaning?? And some moment are ended up with a filler, like the scene where Eddie sent a message to the news station for some reason, but does this have to do with the plot? Nothing. But of course, they even add some sense of humor lines, which i did chuckle from either a dialogue or even some moment, like where Eddie doesn't want to jump down, but using an elevator, which Venom is not very please for his "Pussy" decision, i mean i have to admit, it made me laugh.

The story and writing is not bad, but i wish if they could give more development to make it more interesting like the army of Symbiotes.

The Production

Since this is the first Sony's Marvel Universe film, how's the presentation holds up?

First of all, the filming location is actually nice, since it takes place in San Francisco, California. Which i guess they're following the setting from the comic that instead of New York (for only Spider-Man), it goes to SF for Venom like in his own comic "Venom: lethal protector". Then they also film the other location to pretend that its Malaysia, even though it was filming not only Francisco, but also Atlanta and New York. I don't know, maybe its the limit of their budget without going in Malaysia.

The action scenes are pretty cool from chasing in the forest, attacking the SWAT and the bike chase scene. Though the bike scene is probably cliche, but i find it to be pretty creative with Symbiote. As for the Symbiotes, i find the effects of these are pretty cool and kinda creepy, way better than the one from Spider-Man 3 they it moves like a crawling hands, even though it looks ok, but the effects in this movie is probably more better for the quality and their creepy moves. Sometimes, the movie gives us a jumpscare, such as when Eddie went in pain from high pitch frequency or where Riot was transformed and probably acting like Christian Bale's Batman. However, i heard that they're originally doing a motion capture to playing as Venom and Riot, but due to the difficulty for the physical and the facial, they decided to changed it in CG, the CG effect of Venom and Riot are not bad that i can say, but at least their designs are better than Spider-Man 3.

But of course, the main criticism of this movie is that it was supposed to be R rated movie that we like to see since the previous Marvel films of X-Men universe like Logan and Deadpool. But because they wanted to make a future crossover with MCU Spider-Man, they decided to tone the violent down with PG-13 rated, which again, causing a concerning potential that it'll fail. But the violent is kinda there, i mean there's some body count where Venom eating a victim's head off and some of dialogues with swearing, especially some moment with an F-bomb. I mean, are you sure you could, i don't know, change your mind to going back to R or something...?

The production of this movie is pretty cool kinda like MCU, but as i may agree with the fans, i still wish if this movie should've been an R-rated movie, even if they could've ask Disney for a violent content for Venom.

The Characters

We expected that this movie would have some likable characters? Well, its rather a mixed bag.

First is Eddie Brock, aka Venom (played by Tom Hardy, aka Bane from "The Dark Knight Rises"), we definitely agree that he's probably a likable character in the movie. As i said, he started a lone and a blamer for what he deserves better than Life Foundation. But when he got bonded by the Symbiote, everything went different to him, he's more like a puppet that he was forced to do so, including where he was forced to eat something or other times driving insane from his mind. Not to mention, Tom also providing the voice of Venom, and i think his voice is pretty cool for creepiness or even his dark sense of humor. Though i haven't seen either Mad Max Fury Road or even The Dark Knight Rises, but like i said, he's easily a better role in this movie.

Then we have our main antagonist named Carlton Drake (played by Riz Ahmed), i find him to be rather an average villain, he's just a typical big boss of his foundation to change the world with Symbiotes. Though Riz did a nice work, but his character would've been more interesting for maybe more development. and for a fourth Symbiote "Riot", im pretty sure you know who belongs to...

Speaking of "need more development", there are few others that i have no others to say. Anne Weying (played by Michelle Williams) who's not only Eddie's ex-fiancee, but also an district attorney, though Michelle did a not bad role, Dr. Dan Lewis (played by Reid Scott) who's a generic new love interest of Anne, but at least he's not a douchebag persona, but more a helper at Eddie's danger, Dora Skirth (played by Jenny Slate) who's a scientist who turned against the foundation secretly and yes, Stan Lee is always making his cameo in this movie, don't miss him if you blink.

The characters have a nice casts, but some of their developments would've been have a chance of likability like Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock.

And now for my final opinion of this film.

Overall, when it first came out, the critics gave a bellow average reception with poor tone and questionable writing. But i disagree with them, because... Its not the worst superhero film, its more like a big fat guilty pleasure like Suicide Squad. The writing is not bad, the story is interesting for the main focus of Brock, the presentation looks pretty cool (at least its not as overdose of darkness like Godzilla 2014 for cinematography.) and  characters are a mixed bag that some are great like Eddie Brock, but others are rather boring and would've been a well-written characters.

Like i said, i am disagree at the critics for how "bad" it is, i mean its not the worst superhero film ever made, i mean i had seen worse in this year which i won't compare, otherwise it'll make suffer PTSD. Does this film is recommend to watch?  Well, i'd say yes, its more likely a biggest request for Spider-Man fans, Venom fans and even Marvel fans as well. But i don't think il consider a perfect film like Infinity War or Incredibles 2. Its a good film, but with flaws that it should've been. But, i guess we have to wait that we like to see a rivalry between Tom Holland's Spider-man and Tom Hardy's Venom.

I gave this movie a 7.5/10. Go watch it if you want, which again, i recommend this one for first Marvel film outside of MCU by Sony.

So this ends of my movie review, if you guys have your opinion or any suggestions, let me know at comment bellow and support me on KO-FI.com/blackevil.

So tune it next two weeks later of Halloween Special, we're going back to land of horror kids story that they'll coming back for haunted Halloween...