Marvel’s newest superhero movie “Venom” released in theaters on Oct. 5 and did reasonably well in the box office, earning $10 million on opening night. However, critics have been harsh on the film with 28 percent rating for Rotten Tomatoes. The movie is based on the origin of the comic book character Venom, as it follows the life of reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) who eventually takes on the parasite which creates this debatable villain/hero.

The negatives for this film starts with the movie’s PG-13 rating. With Venom being portrayed as a ruthless villain in past Spiderman works, it’s not hard to see why fans would expect an R rating. Personally, I feel the movie would have been much better if it was unfiltered in its portrayal of Venom and its horror like qualities. 

Another negative of this movie is its formulaic structure as well as its predictability. The movie’s premise was definitely enticing and made the viewer interested, but from there, none of the things that occurred were shocking or interesting. This leaves the viewer thinking about what directions the movie could have gone to make it better.

The action and humor in the movie makes up for the movie’s negatives as it paints Venom as an overall enjoyable character. The back and forth between Eddie Brock and the symbiote (Venom) is much more humorous than expected and undoubtedly caused audiences to break out in laughter in theaters across the nation.

Tom Hardy as the main role acted very well in my opinion and played the character better than any other actor could. The jokes in this movie apart from a select few were all correctly placed and served as positive contributions that perhaps turned a bad movie to an average one.

The action in this movie also did not disappoint as seeing Venom on the screen in 2018 with his revamped look from previous movies. He looked much improved and the animation involved in the fight scenes were great. From the beginning of the movie where Venom takes out henchmen bad guys to the end where he takes on the major villain of the movie, Venom’s action scenes showed off the parasite’s abilities effectively and provided multiple memorable fight moments in superhero movie history.

Overall, despite its failure to meet high expectations and a disappointing plot, the movie was fun to watch and most will be glad that they saw it.

Personally, I would not be upset if Marvel continued the series because there is real potential for the new Venom series to be fantastic. If the action and humor this movie already has could also have a better plot with twists and more gruesome scenes, it could be one of the better superhero movies out there.

Rating: 6.9/10