Keepin’ It Reel: Venom

 As someone who had never imagined a comic book villain getting their own movie, you can imagine my shock when I found out about “Venom.” Heroes were virtually the only comic book characters to have an origin movie before “Deadpool,” so for Marvel to create another with such a gruesome villain was strange in my opinion.  I was very skeptical at first, and curious as to how Marvel was going to create the movie without recreating the plot of the original movie Venom was featured in, “Spider-Man 3.”

As the movie begins, we are introduced to Eddie Brock, a famous journalist played by Tom Hardy. Eddie’s goal is expose Carlton Drake, the founder of The Life Foundation, who is accused of authorizing experiments that resulted in the death of numerous people. After being fired, left by his fiancée, and losing his home, Eddie goes on a downward drunken spiral.

With Eddie’s life falling apart, The Life Foundation has discovered four new alien life forms and brought them back to Earth for testing. After several experiments, Carlton determines that the aliens are called symbiotes and require compatible human hosts to survive in our climate. Venom is one of these symbiotes and, after killing one of Eddie’s friends, he merges with Eddie’s body. Filled with rage and inhuman abilities, Eddie and Venom set off to stop Carlton and the other symbiotes from destroying the world. “Venom” is not the first anti-hero movie Marvel has created. However, unlike “Deadpool,” “Venom” was a more plot-filled and serious movie. There were some funny moments, but the action was uncanny. For those who are unfamiliar with the comic book universe, an anti-hero is traditionally someone who was a villain and decided to become a hero, despite lacking morals. Venom helps save our world from being taken over, but he shows no mercy to anyone in his path and isn’t afraid of eating some heads, literally. Between the two Marvel anti-hero movies, “Venom” absolutely came out on top with its thrilling, thoughtful plot and creative graphics.

This movie was based solely on the “Venom” comics and had no connection to Venom’s previous appearance in “Spider-Man 3,” much to my dislike. “Venom” brings us through Marvel’s new backstory for Venom and it’s completely different from his character in “Spider-Man 3.” In that movie, Venom is a creature that takes host inside of Peter Parker in New York City, creating the black Spider-Man suit. After taking a nasty beating in a bell tower, Venom decides to merge with Eddie Brock, a reporter who works with Peter. In “Venom”, Venom is still a creature that requires a host, but instead of transitioning from Peter Parker to Eddie Brock in New York, he takes up host in Eddie while in San Francisco, Calif. Not only does the change in plot mix things up for previous fans of Venom’s character, like myself, but the change in location where Venom appears creates an even bigger conundrum for fans.

Overall, as a standalone movie, “Venom” was incredible, to say the least. I rate it a 9 out of 10. I was genuinely surprised at how enjoyable this movie was for me. The graphics were appealing, flawless and detailed. When I first heard of “Venom,” I wondered how they were going to find someone to portray such a complex character, but Tom Hardy’s acting was undeniably superb. This movie is fantastic for both those who love comics and those who don’t. “Venom” will definitely be a movie I watch again very soon.