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Venom (2018)


So the Venom reviewer on Ebert.com called this a "minor entrant" in the Marvel Universe, for people who only care about Venom because they care about Spiderman, and Venom is a Spiderman villain. 

Venom in this movie, of course, is not a Spiderman villain, and, in fact, he seems like a pretty cool symbiote. "Cool" in the sense that he becomes "friends" with Eddie (Tom Hardy). He wouldn't have to be friends with Eddie, but he for some reason says he has grown to like him, and in the end, Eddie must like him too -- "We are Venom."

Other symbiotes completely take over their human host. They don't "share" the space, and they don't seem to care about who they eat or what happens to the host when they decide to move on to someone else. 

I'm interested, then, in this relationship. I'm interested in this Venom and its willingness to fight the symbiote who has taken over Carlton (Riz Ahmed). Lots of these symbiotes are out there, maybe on their way, heading toward Earth. They all want to come to Earth and enjoy the smorgasbord. Venom needs to eat, too, but he seems open to just eating bad guys and keeping the rest of his kind from invading Earth and destroying humanity. 

Venom might be a Spiderman villain. When I'm watching this movie, I don't care about that. Spiderman isn't around. He hasn't been introduced in this film universe, and I don't worry about him not being here. Venom and Eddie are strong enough to keep my attention. 

Carlton does remind me of the government agents in Alien. He wants a living alien so that he can test it, and he's completely like Osborn in Spiderman, in the sense that he wants to weaponize and control the symbiote. He doesn't care about the human victims, really. In fact, Carlton says that humans need to evolve, and the symbiotes are the way to the future. All the time, of course, he assumes he can control them, but based on his own symbiote experience, that seems doubtful. 

Eddie never "controls" Venom. Whatever their relationship is based on, it's Venom who has the heart or the empathy, or whatever, to use Eddie without destroying him. To me, he shows that not all symbiotes are the same. We don't know why Venom is different, but he is, and that, to me, is really what makes this movie work. 

Rating: 4/5 stars

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