Movie Review: 'Venom'

If you liked the film Deadpool, you’re going to love Venom! The stories are not alike, but the spirits of creativity, invention, ingenuity and a flair for humor make these films very similar. Evil, Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) has sent one of his space ships to a distant place to collect samples of a special ingredient (which strongly resembles fat rods of blue-black spaghetti – goo), that when inside a human body gives it super powers.

The ship crashes in Indonesia, far short of its scheduled destination. Some of the goo oozes from the ship, as his emergency teams attempt to collect the rest. Back in the lab, Carlton’s scientists are successful in performing the goo-into-rabbits experiment, so he pushes them on to trying goo-into-humans.

Good, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a successful TV news reporter who roars around San Francisco on his motorcycle collecting stories to report to the viewers of his successful show. His boss assigns him a prestigious new assignment – to interview the famed Carlton Drake in his scientific compound hanging on the cliffs above San Francisco Bay. Eddie is cautioned to behave himself and not to go “off the rails” and ruin the interview. That advice lasts about five minutes at which time the interview unravels. Eddie is escorted off the property but not before coming to the attention of Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Stale) who has grievous concerns regarding the experiments taking place at the facility.

Unable to bear the stress of her concerns any longer, Dora contacts Eddie. He finally agrees to  join her for an after-hours look around the lab. Once inside, he finds her concerns very real, and being the good reporter that he is, begins recording images on his mobile phone.

Moments later their presence is discovered and the facility goes into crisis mode – this is when the goo hits the fan! The flying goo that hits Eddie may not have been much, but was enough to give him the powers to escape his pursuers and reach safety. In the lab, the goo-into-human experiments failed miserably, but the accidental goo-into-Eddie worked brilliantly.

Eddie is astonished at his new physical prowess, yet a tad confused at the new voice that speaks to him at odd moments. Carlton learns of the successful transfer of his goo into a human and becomes desperate to find and capture Eddie.

The new “super Eddie” manages to evade all attempts at capture. By now, almost everyone working in the lab is infected. The good and bad goo-driven forces surge through the Bay Area in a tangled mess of blue-black spaghetti, people, cars, buildings and even a small dog. Will the world survive, and when is this catastrophe ever going to end? Good questions.

Directed by Ruben Fleicher (Credits: Gangster Squad, 30 Minutes or Less) this “must see” film runs 112 minutes.

johan@beachcomber.news