Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahemed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate, Melora Walters, Woody Harrelson, Peggy Lu, Malcolm C. Murray, Dope Aluko, Wayne Pere, Michelle Lee, Stan Lee.
There was a time when Todd McFarlane’s name was as arguably huge as the house of Marvel itself, an artist who breathed new and exciting life into the company for his work on Spider-man and who brought into being one of the most dynamic, deadliest characters in the world to fruition. Todd McFarlane’s name deserves recognition and awe in the same breath as Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Alex Ross and John Romita, a name that will undoubtedly endure and give graphic novel fans the chills when they think of one particular character above them all, that of Venom.
It is a character that has breathed in the ashes of fire and havoc before, one that perhaps should have had greater significance on the future of the Marvel franchise of films when placed in the third Spider-man film by Sam Raimi alongside Tobey McGuire and played with urgency by Topher Grace but since the house of Marvel has only just regained the ability to have Peter Parker/ Spider-man back in its own den, to even have a standalone version of the alien symbiote/Eddie Brock hybrid on screen, is something of a coup; and it is one that does have a fine taste and bite.
The difference in a what a decade can do when a character is effectively on hiatus, for all the talk of bringing Venom along to the party in one film or another, it is perhaps strange that one of Marvel’s greatest anti-hero’s was relegated, pushed back into the land of the graphic novel and not having a big screen presence is arguably a thought that has had many scratching their heads; but then it takes the boiling mixture of gravitas and just enough on-screen insanity to frame this particular alien and bring it too life.
In Tom Hardy the cinema goer has that in spades, a British actor who has proved time and time again just what he can achieve with the raise of a single eyebrow, the madness of the characters he has played, the depths of insanity, and the fortitude and devotion to make sure the audience is left breathless and shocked in parts to see the reveal. It is to this end that Todd McFarlane’s Venom is in the safest hands possible, the confusion of being of two minds, of two voices and the violence that erupts, explodes and shatters the peace of the crowd’s collective mind; nobody else realistically could bring such pain, suffering and intensity to Venom.
If there is a downside to this particular film then it is perhaps in the expectation, and the disregard for the character’s origins, one that was closer in the Sam Raimi Spiderman trilogy, and which wasn’t even on the button then. It seems the rewriting of history is not only in favour of the victors of war and battle, but in the machinations of a good story once told. The expectation for a Marvel character these days is pretty high, and for the most part it succeeds, there have been a couple of glaring exceptions, the initial 21st Century Hulk films being ones that spring to mind; however Venom by-passes that, and whilst history or convention is sadly left to be discovered in the chamber of old thumbed and less than pristine graphic novels, this particular Venom has enough to keep from being a bane in the eyes of the fan, and the cinema-goer.
Ian D. Hall