Venom

Generally received a mixed response from people when enquiring about this movie. Tom Hardy is liked as an actor and often takes on slightly different roles so it is always nice to see him being a normal, slightly attractive guy, with no insane muscles or masks. The general feeling was that the film was good but the special effects weren't great and I can see where people are coming from.

The thing about special effects is that in a world full of technology, directors and producers often forget about the plot and the development and spend too much time focusing on the special effects. A lot of movies recently have overdone it on the effects and the film has suffered for it. I personally didn't feel that Venom overdid it at all. There was nothing special about the effects but that was good because it meant that we as the viewer could focus more on the plot and the talent on display in front of us.

I've never really understood much about Venom. I didn't watch the third Spider-Man movie and I haven't read the comics so let's say that I am a complete novice. I enjoyed the movie. Venom is neither a good guy nor a bad guy. Venom is sort of a conflicted character who turns from good to bad but has no loyalty to the earth and actually has no loyalty to Eddie. They work well together and something about Eddie seems to work for Venom, hence why he stays but nothing is owed to Eddie and that means that Venom is free to behave as Venom sees fit which makes him neither good nor bad- a bit like Deadpool.

Tom Hardy was brilliant. I found him to be the perfect character; sticks up for what he believes in, doesn't realise what it will cost him until he loses it and then has to correct his mistakes by remembering what he believed in. There was no standout star in this movie. Michelle Williams was strong as Anne. She tried to fight, she even had Venom inside of her, albeit very briefly, and she wasn't the pathetic love interest who cannot do anything for herself. There is room for her to be developed in future movies. Riz Ahmed was a strong villain but he wasn't an obvious villain. The character of Drake was obviously going to be the bad guy. He was obviously doing something suspect with his science labs but then most top scientists are. There was always a sign of control and the calmness within him that enabled him to evoke fear within people without getting angry or saying anything more than asking how your family was. People like that are people that you should be afraid of as they are often more capable of unimaginable things than the overly aggressive, power crazy people.

Venom is a solid movie and they will probably make another one to help continue with the Spider-verse and the MCU. Venom can also be a stand alone set of movies and even though there were a few cut scenes linking to Spider-Man, like the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movies, it can be done as a stand alone and then brought together as part of something bigger when it needs to.

I hope that there will be another movie.