A well-known TV reporter, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is at the top of his game and a respected man within his city. He lives with his girlfriend (Michelle Williams) and life for Eddie is overall good.

Eddie Brock is asked to investigate a celebrity, but he pushes the boundaries during the interview, costing him his career and sadly his girlfriend. Eddie is down on his luck until he continues to investigate the assigned case and comes in contact with an alien-type symbiote which releases an alter-ego character known as VENOM. 

For those who are unaware, this film is a stand-alone film and can be watched without viewing all of the previous Spider-Man instalments, or the other Marvel films. To this day I have always been a huge fan of Spider-Man and also admit to a guy crush (aka guy love) on the actor Tom Hardy. In my opinion, the man can do no wrong in cinema today. From the announcement of this film and seeing the trailers, I could only pray this film could finally do what Spider-Man 3 failed to do back in 2007.

I’m proud to say that Tom Hardy, who plays Eddie Brock (and provides the deep dark voice of Venom) is incredible. Eddie Brock as a character is believable and even more so once he comes in contact with Venom. Eddie, at times, looks his absolute worst and somewhat gross as a result of his new encounter with the symbiote. Venom, as a character, looks and sounds fantastic. The power combined of both Eddie and Venom is where the review score points come into play (even if some patience is required to get things underway). Once the 1st act has passed, the film goes into full gear.

My disappointments; however, are found with those characters around Eddie & Venom. The performance of Eddie’s girlfriend (Michelle Williams), who I found unbelievable and annoying on-screen (sorry, I’m just honest here!). Similar comments could be made about the film’s villain who also just doesn’t feel right given the film’s dark and gritty tone. Don’t get me wrong, I think these actors are awesome, but how they have been used along with the film’s dialogue feels poor considering how much screen time they take up. 

I also found myself distracted during multiple occasions with some of the film’s editing choices. Some scenes have unexpected cuts and edits that simply don’t make sense or match up. One example is Eddie walking down the street during bright daylight. Then suddenly after walking into a store, it is night time outside. Slightly annoying and disjointed moments like these kept me thinking that I was missing out on other scenes or massive cuts are made. Either way, I felt like there should be an unedited/uncut version coming to Bluray (fingers crossed). Either way, as a result of the editing, some moments don’t feel like a final product.

Overall, I’m thankful to witness a more refined version of the well known Marvel character “Venom”. On-screen Tom Hardy (as one would expect) does not disappoint or fail this role. I did; however, felt somewhat disappointed by the surrounding characters and bizarre editing choices that I found slightly distracting or annoying. Hopefully corrections are made should we ever see a sequel.

5.7/10

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Review Written by Peter Walkden