[Review] Venom (5/10)

Title - Venom
Studio - Sony Pictures
Starring - Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Jenny Slate, Woody Harrelson
Writer - Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner
Director - Ruben Fleischer
Release - 5 October 2018

Right from the first shot of Tom Hardy interacting with Michelle Williams, Williams look completely out of place. And that is just bizarre coming from one of the best actresses of our generation. She was completely miscast and she never really found her footing.

Right down to the end where she had to throw a cliched movie-line, that was downright cringy.

Best part of the movie was... nothing. The entire thing felt like they were loosely held together by thin webbings and could fall apart at anytime.

What about Tom Hardy? He did not look comfortable either although I did see Eddie Brock after a little while. (Again, the Eddie Brock had a hard time coming through because Williams made him unrecognizable, if that makes any sense.)

Riz Ahmed was probably the only one that was most serviceable. Every one else were ineffective.

Also, Sony is trying really hard to be Marvel with this movie. It's them trying to see if Spider-Man: Homecoming would rub off on them. The answer was no. The whole thing felt like they were tying too hard. Even when our favourite cameo-person came on, it did not feel like he belonged there.

The action sequences, especially the car chase and the final battle; these were just boring. The dialogue needed work but the bits and pieces of comedy were adequate, I suppose.

And at the end, they threw in another great actor to pull for its sequel; that worked for me but just barely. I won't speak too much about it or it will become a spoiler.

As an ending thought, the director is wrong for this. He did not know how to direct Williams, nor the action scenes; nor the first act of the movie because when the symbiote was not present the plot just dragged on and on.

And the whole thing just felt too much of a second-rated alien, science-fiction genre that's tacky and cheesy; instead of what it should be, a superhero genre that is in the realm of sci-fi.