Venom

It’s school holidays here in France which means the kids are at my place which in turn means lot’s of time in front of the screen. Last night it was Venom’s turn to be plopped into my Blu-ray player. I have to say that I was a little disappointed. Sure it is a good movie and I did indeed enjoy it but not as much as I thought I would. According to the ratings it looked like the majority of the audience liked it a lot and I do like the character Venom. Sure the culture elite and politically correct idiots that Rotten Tomates use as “critics” claimed it to be rotten but, for me, that’s usually a good sign when it comes to my entertainment value from a movie. The good things are that I found Venom, the creature, really cool. I liked his voice, his appearance and his no-nonsense attitude. The special effects and the action was very enjoyable to watch. Luckily that was my main reason for watching the movie. Actually, it is probably the main reason I want to watch any Marvel movie, especially lately given the poor quality of writers that Marvel has employed. I guess it is a plus as well that there was not too much politically correct, green or social preaching in it. I am sure those so inclined can find more than me if they go looking for it but most of the movie audience, at least not for this type of movie, probably could not care less. The main reason I felt somewhat disappointed is that the main protagonist is really not someone I could feel like I would root for. He is such a despicable douche-bag. For starters he is a low life journalist with an overblown ego and disrespect of pretty much everything. The kind CNN would employ. Even when he’s been infected by Venom he continues between being a worthless egoistic coward and just an asshole. Actually the only real difference between the him and the big bad guy is that the bad guy is a hundred times more intelligent. It’s not until the very end scenes that Eddie develops a minimum of likability. On the other hand Venom is really the star of the movie. Both as a “thing” and as a character. He is a real bad-ass, quite funny and really everything that Eddie should have been as a character. He even develops more as a character than previously mentioned douche-bag. It’s a shame since otherwise this would have been a great movie. The story is simple but works well for this kind of movie. There are no silly twists and convoluted sub-plots. The main protagonist, as poor as he is, at least do not carry a lot of past history trying to explain God knows what and such stuff. If the character of the main protagonist would have been more likable this would have been a great movie. Now it is “just” good.