Edinburgh and Us: Snap Review

Have you ever wanted to find out a little bit about a new film to get an indication of whether you’ll like it or not, and ended up reading the entire story? We have. That is why our snap reviews are designed specifically to help you decide if it’s one to watch without giving everything away.

Star Rating: 3.5 out of 5, Good - Very Good

Venom Poster Image Source

The comedy-action film ‘Venom’ has defied its many unkind critics by pulling in $80 million in its first weekend in the US - breaking the October box office record previously held by 2013’s ‘Gravity’ by more than $20 million. The Marvel-Sony film is also faring well worldwide and proving popular with audiences in the UK.

Venom features as a supporting anti-hero in Marvel’s Spiderman Universe but is the latest character to be unleashed onto the big screen in a standalone movie. He is formed when an extra-terrestrial, amorphous creature bonds with a human host, in this case, investigative journalist Eddie Brock.

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock Image Source

Tom Hardy plays both likeable, down-to-earth lead Eddie and one of the bloodthirsty parasites called Venom who enters Eddie’s body. Hardy adds subtle nuance to Eddie’s character in every scene which does well in grounding the film’s playful humour. Not the usual good guy, Eddie, hosts his own gritty news show and is shown riding around San Francisco on his motorbike.

He is in a happy relationship with Anne Weying - played by Michelle Williams whose break-through film was the 2005 drama ‘Brokeback Mountain’. Her subsequent hits have included ‘Shutter Island’, ‘Manchester by the Sea’ and ‘The Greatest Showman’ but this was her first comic book film. As the story unfolds, life takes a turn for the worse for Eddie and after a series of events, Venom finds him.

Anne Weying (Williams) and Eddie Brock (Hardy) Image Source

Eddie’s main antagonist is Carlton Drake, founder of the Life Project, an ethically dubious survivalist group, who are interested in using human volunteers to experiment with the parasite. He is played by Riz Ahmed (Rogue One- A Star Wars Story, Night Crawler and The Night Of) and is a more understated and believable character than other Marvel villains.

Riz Ahmed as villain Carlton Drake Image Source

Comic book fans have been looking forward to a movie dedicated to this enigmatic character for years. To be fair to some of the critics of the film, it doesn’t have the grim darkness of say The Dark Knight series or the gore that some might have expected from a monster with a tendency to bite humans’ heads off. Others have said that the film is all over the place with its tone, however, arguments can be made that the original Venom character has always been a tonal mess as a suicidal disgraced reporter-monster who likes to sing and eat chocolate to stop himself eating human flesh.

Venom shows his best smile Image Source

Hardy was practiced in playing two characters after his part in ‘Legend’ as both siblings Ronald "Ronnie" Kray and Reginald "Reggie" Kray in a film that, too, garnered mixed reviews. His brilliant split-personality performance in Venom is almost certainly the reason behind the movie’s success. What could have been a simplistic superhero origin story ends up being full of comedic energy.

Details

Language: English

UK Release Date: 03/10/2018

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Superhero

Length: 140 minutes

Country: United States

Director: Rubin Fleischer

Producers: Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach and Amy Pascal

Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott

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