"Venom" is a Bad Movie that I Enjoy

While on vacation last week my wife and I were looking for a movie to watch before bed. We wanted a quiet night in our room with a movie we could just vedge out to before going to sleep. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the first "Venom" movie with Tom Hardy.

I do want to say, right off the bat, this is a bad movie. When you look at its bare bones, there's nothing really redeeming or good about it. It's dull, weird and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It's objectively a bad movie. But, in this rewatch, I was astounded at some of the things we both noticed.

First off, this cast is absolutely stacked. Tom Hardy is an award nominee and has won a few here and there. He's a method actor and he takes his work too seriously. I enjoy his acting, but I bet he is a pain to work alongside. Michelle Williams plays his ex. She is an award winner for sure. She is a multiple Oscar nominee. She is in some of the best movies of the 2000's. She was a tv star who made the leap to movies with ease. Riz Ahmed plays the villain. He is a multi time award nominee. His performance in "The Sound of Metal" is one of the best acting performances I've ever seen. He is wonderful in "4 Lions". Ahmed has made one hell of a career for himself. Jenny Slate is a comedy queen. She makes great movies for A24. She is one of the best at portraying the 90's in some of the movies she has been in lately. That is a bunch of heavy hitters in a movie that lives in the "Spiderman" universe, and isn't animated. We were taken aback when we realized this last week.

Another thing we noticed was Hardy's dual role in this movie. He plays Eddie Brock. He is a "rogue" writer. He does the grimy and gritty stories. He wants to expose what he deems to be the bad guys. He and Williams also have pretty good chemistry when they are still a couple in the movie. I buy their made up relationship. Hardy also plays the voice of Venom, and it is wild, wild stuff. Venom is loud and rude. Venom knows what it wants and tells Eddie all this. The two of them actually have back and forth before we even know that Brock is infected with Venom. And on this watch I loved every single second of this dual role. It was hilarious. You can tell that Hardy totally bought in and took this role seriously. He didn't just phone it in. He wanted this role and he wanted people to know that he wanted the role. Some actors would just cash a paycheck while filming this movie. Not Hardy. He bought in. We were both impressed that he was actually going for it in this awful movie.

The last thing we noticed was how sweaty Hardy was the whole time. He looked like he had just run a marathon. And he looked this way pretty much the whole movie. Even before he was Venom, he still had an unkempt, grimy look to him. I attribute this to the fact that Hardy probably didn't want to comb his hair or take a shower while making this movie. I'm not saying he didn't do these things, it just looked that way to us. It was quite the look.

Finally, I cannot emphasize how bad of a movie "Venom" is. But, if you look for some fun things about it, like my wife and I did, you may find yourself enjoying it a bit more. I know we did and it was a much better viewing experience for the both of us. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Never Than Late on "Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage"

This past Saturday my wife and I did our weekly date night. It was her turn to pick the movie and she went with "Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage". We actually bought it on Amazon. There was no other option. And it was not as expensive as going to an actual theater. So we now own this movie. Take that any way you'd like to.

I remember watching the first "Venom" movie and thinking it was not good, but it was fun. It was a fun bad movie. There is a difference between a bad movie and a fun bad movie. Fun bad movies are goofy and enjoyable and you can make fun of them while watching and talk to other people who feel the same way. A bad movie is just bad. There is no joy. No fun. No goofing on it with people. Bad movies are tedious and blah. If you'd like an example, "The Room" is a fun bad movie. "Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is simply a bad movie. Unfortunately "Venom 2" is a bad movie.

I really tried with "this movie. As I said, I found the first one semi enjoyable. But this one, it tried too hard to be cheesy. They leaned into the "friendship" between Venom and Eddie Brock far too much. In the first "Venom" it was crazy when they started acting friendly and having legitimate conversations with one another. In this sequel it seems as if they forced the friendship. The first scene with Brock and Venom was crazy. Brock is talking to a detective and when he doesn't get the assignment he wants, Venom pops out of his back and attempts to eat the detective. Brock pulls himself into a bathroom and he and Venom have a full on conversation about their set of "rules". Brock goes as far as to grab part of Venom's tentacles like hands to calm him down. It was insane. And it only got crazier from there. The way Venom and Brock live is nuts. The apartment is a mess. Brock complains all the time. So does Venom. Apparently Venom is sick and tired of eating chocolate and chicken brains. Venom wants human brains. Brock is not on board with this.

Also you have to remember, this movie has Academy Award nominated and winning actors. Tom Hardy is Brock and the voice of Venom. He tries, but he does not do well. Michelle Williams is the former fiance who has moved on, but she is barely in the movie. And when she is, she is a cliche superhero's ex. She says some of the corniest written lines. Woody Harrelson plays Carnage, and it is cool to see him play a bad guy, a villain, but he chews so much scenery. It is too much. If he had toned down the wackiness by 1/4 it could have been great. But he went too far and did too much. And they hardly used the Shriek character in this movie. She could have added great depth, but they kept her on the sideline, and that was a bummer. Also, Andy Serkis' direction was kind of clunky. There were odd cuts. I already mentioned the misuse of Williams and hardly using Shriek. And he let Harrelson and Hardy riff and go too far over the edge. It seemed like he wanted to make a comedy or a drama. He couldn’t pick one or the other. It was frustrating.

I really wanted to enjoy "Venom 2" like I did with "Venom". I went in expecting it to not be good, but to be fun bad. Unfortunately for me it was just bad. If you want to watch it, or you have an urge to watch every MCU or DC or any superhero movie, watch it. Maybe there are things I missed because I have never read the comics. But for me, "Venom 2" was a total misfire. That bummed me out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Should Have Skipped the Not So Good "Venom"

Last night my wife and I sat down and watched "Venom". It was on Starz awhile back, I recorded it, and we finally had some time to check it out.

Before I get into it, the cast for this movie is really incredible. Tom Hardy is Eddie Brock/Venom. He is one of my favorite actors. I enjoy pretty much everything he does. Hell, I was one of the few people that liked "Taboo". Michelle Williams has a big role in this movie. She is a multi Academy Award nominee. She has been in some great movies. She has had the best career of anyone that was on "Dawson's Creek". Fight me on this, I dare you. Riz Ahmed was the bad guy. He is a legit soon to be star. He was excellent on that crime show on HBO a year or so back. Jenny Slate has a small yet prominent role. I don't think anyone has made it bigger than she has after her snafu on "SNL". She has a solid and growing career right now. Also, "Obvious Child" is one of the most underrated movies. It's a gem. And there is a Woody Harrelson cameo. Harrelson is also one of my favorite actors of all time. He is a super duper star.

All of this is being said because I had high hopes for "Venom". It did not live up to my hype. I'm not going to openly be mean and trash the movie because I am trying to be better about stuff like that. But man, "Venom" was confounding and dull and slow and poorly CGI'd and just not very fun. I was utterly confused by the dynamic that was created by Hardy when Venom took him on as a host. It seemed as if Hardy decided he was just going to totally go for it and be as wild as possible, also trying to be funny, and it simply didn't work. It was confusing. When he was talking to Venom, it felt like the movie shifted into a romantic comedy about Brock and Venom, which could have worked oddly, but it was too far fetched. And Williams looked liked she would rather be anywhere else. She seemed to really phone it in. I read some interviews where she pretty much conceded she did the movie just to do a super hero movie. Her and Hardy had zero chemistry. Her relationship with the guy that plays Dan Egan on "Veep" was much more believable. Slate gave it her all, but her role was added to the movie, she is not from the comic books, and it just felt forced. She was good. I put the onus on the 7 writers, that's right, 7, as to why her character didn't really belong. Ahmed goes full Eddie Redmayne from "Jupiter Ascending", and it was bizarre. He constantly contradicts himself. He isn't believable as the bad guy, and when he turns into his symbiote, that is what they call the alien host, Riot, it was far too similar to Venom. He just had some added moves, and it was pretty blah. I respect that all these actors, for the most part, went for it, it just didn't work. I was very disappointed in the outcome.

I really wanted to like this movie. I even tried to make excuses while we were watching it. But, I just can't. It just isn't a very good movie. There are a few decent scenes, but they are immediately erased the very next moment. And man was Hardy's choice for Venom's voice totally absurd. It really takes you out of the movie. I am also bummed that it got the dreaded PG-13 rating. "Venom" should be R, and possibly a hard R. Look at how great a movie like "Deadpool" is because of the R rating. Venom is scary and gross and an alien that likes to eat people. Don't rate a movie like that PG-13. It takes away so much.

Needless to say, I do not recommend "Venom". It just isn't very good.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. It is weird that Ty does not think Katie Holmes is the best actor from the “Dawson’s Creek” crew. She really sold her role as wife of Tom Cruise.

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