The Appeal of Venom

It’s the chemistry between Eddie and Venom that is most entertaining and relishing, showcasing a dynamic contrast of comedic and dark themes which we can all relate to.

With a film full of so many wicked and bizarre elements, audiences may find a lot of common ground in Venom as we see Eddie re-build his life for the better.

Coming off the 2007’s Spider-man 3, showcasing a timid Topher Grace Venom, Marvel studios brought in a bigger budget and scope to a character that has captured the minds of comic book fans from across the world, in Ruben Fleischer’s hit film Venom. Only this time, the character gets the screen time of a world champion.

With a budget of over 100 million and box office gross of 856 million, 2018’s Venom is turning out to be one of this decades most successful comic book adaptations of the ultimate anti-hero, here are some reasons as to why the film clicked so well with audiences.

Its no suprise why Venom succeeded all financial expectations and there are multiple reasons as to why. For the box office this film had achieved, it must have attracted fans across all platforms, even including those who haven’t read the comic books including myself.

There was a certain appeal to Venom that included interesting visual direction but also a relatable hook to the project, which was carried by Tom Hardy who is one of our generation’s most sought out male leads in cinema and he is the films brightest selling points or in this case a little more darker than bright, ironically.

You can definitely tell and feel the passion from the film crew of delivering the right representation of this character as we haven’t really seen this character done right for a full length picture before, prior to 2018.

Essentially, its the back and forth between Tom hardy and Venom which captured the interests of audiences around the world. This combined with some mighty action scenes of chaos and carnage resulting in a great well rounded viewing experience.

The film shows how far Tom Hardy has come in his talented range of acting performance, coming off the strong and stoic Mad Max: Fury Road to a performance concerning an everyman who is put in an extraordinary situation, where he is faced with Venom who is the ultimate contradiction to all forms of humanity.

An antidote to all forms of peace and tranquility, and we see these two themes collide in reality and there lies the appeal for audiences who aren’t familiar with the character, backstory and the comic books.

The film has a regular opening to middle section, where we are learning of Eddie’s job and personality. He is pretty much a regular guy, getting the most out of his job and eventually losing it, with a touch of romance from the well-cast Michelle Williams, who excellently brings out the warmer elements of Venom’s character.

The film in general is a tonal mess, a mish mash of several ill conceived ideas and concepts, colliding together matching the equal madness and absurdity of the actual premise, but within this combination there are several layers of joyful entertainment featuring performances from Hardy and Williams who both shine on some occasions.

The film was directed by Zombieland and Uncharted’s Ruben Fleischer who seems to be on the rise for both Hollywood and mainstream audience success. Most of the enjoyment from the film comes from Eddies’s relationship with Venom, its fun, exciting and there is something in that relationship that we can relate with.

That on going monologue between the two and the clash is what works on screen. We get to see plenty of outbursts on screen in front of the public and its a lot of fun because we often don’t come across a relationship as hefty as this one in cinematic terms. Their relationship has to go down as cinemas most chaotic pairing in history, its just completely all over the place, up and down as sung in Katy Perry’s hot and cold.

The film has a pretty dark visual look and tone, with plenty of shots of rain and Eddie riding his motorbike down the streets in fine style. With all this said, does Venom deliver on the action goods? the answer is yes, the action may not be as dramatic or compelling as some of the sequences in Nolan’s epic Dark Knight trilogy, but we are taken on some ride as we witness motorbikes flipping over, public outbursts, mass slaughtering, dark guts and plenty more. Most of the action scenes are shot and done on a grand scale which really sells the drama.

This relationship is made more effect due to Venom’s effects and voice, the creature is terrifying and relentless in almost every manner possible. As we have come to know Tom Hardy usually plays characters of great strength and power, including his roles in Warrior, Mad Max, The Dark Knight Rises, and Inception but here he reaches several breaking points in his career, romance and in himself, he looses his sense of control and security because of Venom’s nature and character. Their relationship is very unpredictable which always keeps the audiences interests.

We really feel his pain when Venom’s bad will and disruptive nature ruins his life one stage at a time as we see Eddie try to rebuild his life as we all do. The crew and makeup department made sure that Eddie looked hopeless with his messy hair and casual clothing. The weaker or less interesting parts of the film come from the scientist’s narrative and most of the scenes taking us outside their duo.

Like all entertaining superhero films, there needs to be a degree of relatablility attached to the characters. Both Eddie and Venom are flawed and if anything Venom is the ultimate anti-hero story which is a rare entity in today’s terms of superhero films. Venom represents the ultimate and heightened form of toxic masculnity as he carelessly infects Eddie’s life.

The best scene is where we first see Venom and Eddie fight a crew of guards in his apartment, it sets the scene to how dangerous Venom is. The visual effects are more creative than what we often see in other generic Marvel films. When we see Venom take out guards, left, right and centre, it is much more unique than in a typical superhero action flick, just check it out for yourself and you will notice the tonal change and difference, it just has that extra creative spark.

Its worth pointing out that Venom was written by Scott Rosenberg who wrote the 90’s classic Con Air with Nicholas Cage and Gone in 60 seconds.

It could also be true that its sequel was a better made film because it had a more consistent direction whereas Venom was like a painter splashing several paints of different tones, styles and colours all onto a canvas, and thats what Venom is essentially. There is something so tonally sinister about the concept of Venom, provoking and sparking different emotions from you which you wouldn’t normally get from a superhero.

Overall, Venom is still a mess of a film but those who want to watch an entertaining yet different take on the superhero, or shall I say anti-hero genre, Venom is a pretty good representation of this, with a wacky performance by Tom Hardy whose performance is contrasted with the more elegant Michele Williams. One thing is for sure, viewers will be in for a surprise with Venom. The film tasks itself seriously when it needs but has fun when it wants, a nice combination in there,

You can buy Venom on steelbook here.

What do you think of Venom?

Author Bio

Sam is a content writer. He loves all elements connected with film and writes with passion, always. You can find him on Linkedin, where you will be able to read more articles. When he is not writing, you can find him practicing football.