Friday, October 5, 2018

Venom, Dark Brother of Spiderman - review

By Information Central October 05, 2018

1,258,674 @ 12:48 am

A Film Review from Joe Viglione

For Spiderman fans who loved the change in costume and the entire Venom thread, this tour de force film will be easy to slip into and enjoy. For those who have not followed the comic books the Venom film may feel a bit convoluted, difficult to digest at first, but if you stay with it Venom works much better than initial reviews may have intimated.

There is so much energy packed into the story and character development that it may be too much for those not initiated to that part of Spiderman's lengthy past. This is Spiderman's "Dark Knight," if you will, and though the quasi-symbiosis (in comic terms, the symbiote) is not Spiderman, they once were a wed duo, a personality combination who could play dual roles within their Jekyll and Hyde-ish schizophrenic pairing.

But if you don't read those Cliff Notes before attending a screening, and have no clue what the personality combination is all about, the Venom film is as bizarre an introduction as the horrible 2015 Fantastic Four fourth film (if one includes the original Roger Corman FF (Reed and Susan Richards, Human Torch and the Thing) affair.)
Like the elasticity at play - the aforementioned Reed Richards with alien powers - Venom grows on you and escapes the curse of truly bad films that are based on truly great comic book heroes.

Thankfully, this Venom film also has some unexpected staying power - something that the frustrating Justice League, Batman vs Superman and aforementioned 2015 FF all lacked. And as much as I liked the last six Spiderman movies (sans the Avengers appearances,) this strange Venom feature may have you coming back for more despite its many flaws. Repeat spins possible due to the subtly complex nature of the script. Comic book fans and Venom devotees will probably catch second and third screenings, the intrigue is tucked away while the humor, somewhat subdued, distracts in a good way.

Make no mistake, this is a Spiderman doppelganger movie, a through-the-glass-darkly take on your friendly neighborhood Spiderman with no sign of Peter Parker or his superhero to be found.

This is Spiderman all grown up in the guise of Eddie Brock

Actor Tom Hardy sounds like Bane as Venom, but where Batman's "Bane" is a second-rate character (channel politician Lloyd Bentsen - I know the Joker, the Joker's a friend of mine, Bane, you're no Joker...) Venom is iconic in its own right. That Hardy gets to play two major villains in both the DC Comics and Marvel Comics platforms is a unique notch on his belt.

With 33 year old TV director Ruben Fleischer at the helm (he'll be 34 on Halloween) it does play out like some lengthy Law and Order: SVU in the Twilight Zone.
For those of us who grew up on Spiderman it is a tough pill to swallow when people who would be born 30 years later start bringing our memories to the silver screen. Because they are not what we were excited and thrilled by, and the failure to use the original comic stories as literal scripts is what has held back many a superhero. The aforementioned Fantastic Four can attest to that, the Greatest Comic Magazine on the planet (the comic book version of a rock group, say - the Rolling Stones) fizzling while lesser heroes surpass them in the billion dollar film club.

What the 30-something director gives us is icky plasmatic goo - a parallel universe mirror of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - and it's a bit cartoonish for a film whose basic dynamic is that of Robert Downey Jr. meets Gwyneth Paltrow - Tony Stark/Pepper Potts coupling for Michelle Williams (of Oz, the Great and Powerful fame; also played Marilyn Monroe and filming as Janis Joplin in an upcoming flick) and Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises.)

Playing in superhero movies is the new Hollywood chic. Jack Nicholson had a blast as the Joker, but it was more like the Joker playing Jack Nicholson, more about a famous Hollywood actor having a blast than the Heath Ledger menace that was the true psychopath Joker. Nicholson opened the door for many a major star to want to be part of these colorful science fiction operas. And as stated, with billions of dollars being generated by secondary characters from the Marvel House of Ideas, anything becomes possible.

The next Venom film could truly break out, just as the Dark Knight launched off of Batman Begins and gave Heath Ledger the opportunity to give the ultimate acting class inside a blockbuster motion picture. When Venom gets a true villain to sink its teeth into, not something contrived as if it emerged out of Star Wars' Clone Wars, the original menace and its broken duality with Eddie Brock will have a chance to truly shine. For right now, Venom is the second coming of Deadpool, and it dodged a huge bullet, because the outcome could have been much, much worse.

From

http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_252

Tired, Peter hangs up his costume and goes to bed. Unfortunately, he can't bring himself to sleep because he has too many thoughts in his head. Deciding to go out web-slinging, Peter is shocked when his costume melts off the chair they are draped on and travels across the the floor and melds over his body. As soon as he is web-slinging, Peter feels like his mind getting more at ease. He quickly spots a mugging in progress and swings down to stop it. Upon seeing Spider-Man the crook flees. His would be victim also flees once he gets a look of Spider-Man, and he figures that it is probably his new costume. Feeling a zest for life, Spider-Man swings across the city. When he spots two teenagers arguing, Spider-Man decides to go down and see what is the matter. He quickly learns that this they are fighting over the fact that the boy, Justin, wasn't able to get tickets to see a band that his girlfriend, Weezie, wanted to see. Spider-Man points out that their fight is pointless since they have a lot going for them.