Friday, January 4, 2019

2018 - IN REVIEW: GUILTY PLEASURE


VENOM

I have to laugh, because every year when I write about my “guilty pleasure”, I always seem to apologise to the film in question for referring to it as such, because they are usually films that have been very well made and are entertaining but just haven't been accepted by critics. This year I have no such qualms because the film in question is not a good film at all, but it is also so damned entertaining and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Before my passion turned to cinema, I was heavily into comics. Interestingly, I was a massive fan of artist Todd McFarlane's work and his run on “The Amazing Spider-Man” is arguably some of my favourite stuff from all the comics I collected in my fifteen years with the hobby. Right at the start of his run came the creation of a character who ended up becoming almost as iconic as Spider-Man himself: Venom. The character immediately became a fan favourite and was a villain who appeared regularly after his debut. Whilst I no longer collect or read comics, I am aware that the character has gone through significant changes since starting as an out and out villain. The first attempt at bringing this character to the big screen in Sam Raimi's “Spider-Man 3” was nothing short of a disaster. Played by a totally miscast Topher Grace, what was presented in that film felt like anything but Venom.

With the character as popular as he is though, there was always going to be another attempt, which brings us to 2018's “Venom” directed by Ruben Fleischer. I have to be honest and admit that I went into watching this film with the lowest possible expectations. All the trailers for the film looked laughable and the fact that they were redefining Venom's origin to not be associated with Spider-Man himself just seemed a little blasphemous. Looking into my crystal ball, I was sure that the film was going to be a massive flop and as history has now shown, I was proved correct. Ok, so the film turned out to be one of the biggest hits of 2018 but it still was greeted by poor reviews. Way after the hype died down, I finally decided to make up my own mind on this sure to be disaster. I was walking into the film expecting to rate it one star, and walked out absolutely loving every second of it (and ended up rating the film 3.5 stars). The thing is, the whole time I was watching the film, I knew that what I was seeing could in no way be defined as “good”; in fact the film taken as a whole is more accurately described as “bad”. The story is poor, the quality of the CGI is even poorer, the action scenes are ridiculous and blandly staged, and the film has one of the most inept and boring villains yet to feature in a superhero movie.

What “Venom” does have though is Tom Hardy. Not only does it have Tom Hardy, it has Tom Hardy on some sort of hallucinogenic drug or something like that because his performance as Eddie Brock is totally insane.......and brilliant. I have no idea how he got away with this, but his performance is unlike anything you have seen. There are really no words to explain it, but it totally works and makes the film as entertaining as it is. He is such a great actor that all of this insanity just feels so natural and right. Seriously, go see “Venom” just to watch his performance, because it is worth the price of admission for sure. The other thing that they get right in the film is Venom himself. Despite not having his iconic spider image on his chest, I think they nailed the look of the character, especially his face and tongue. I love his deep, angry sounding voice which is perfect and his arguments with Eddie are so funny. I was not expecting to laugh as much as I did during these scenes. The final thing that endeared me to this film is that Michelle Williams is in the cast and plays Eddie Brock's fiance. I adore Williams and like to watch anything she is in and with “Venom” it is a rare chance to see this fine actress just let her hair down and have some fun without the intense emotional baggage she is often noted for in her usual art-house appearances. While she doesn't have a huge amount to do in the film (until close to the end.......spoilers) she is still delightful in the role.

So there you have it. My guilty pleasure film for 2018 is “Venom”; a film I was quite embarrassed for loving as much as I did. For once I am pretty sure too that this film qualifies as a bad film but you know what, stuff it, it is also very entertaining (thanks to Mr. Hardy) and I loved (almost) every minute of it and if Hardy is going to be involved again, I say “BRING ON THE SEQUEL”!


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