La Ron S. Readus
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I Got Drunk off Wine and Watched Venom 2018 (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2022-09-16 23:00:03 +0000 UTC(Opens a bottle of wine and pours a glass to near full before taking a sip and looking at the camera) VENOM.
/Blah blah blah 2018 Sony Pictures. Blah blah blah Eddie Brock. Blah blah blah symbiotes. Blah blah blah I have a parasite/
It’s a Spider-Man related comic book movie that the majority of its fanbase agree is on the “so bad it’s good” level.
The problem...is that unlike OTHER “so bad it’s good” level movies, people went to go see it IN THEATERS during the movies original release window, when the box office numbers matters most.
And, just like the memeification of Morbius has proven, Sony execs translated said box office contributions to mean that Venom...was a hit.
And I...was disappointed...in ALL OF YOU.
So for those of you who are new, this is not the first video I’ve made about this movie.
/I did a review of it back when it was originally released in theaters, and then I did a more in-depth review of it for my Film Friday segment./
The reason why I’m doing a THIRD one is because I realized despite my second one supposedly being more in-depth, I spent at least half of the video... stalling
Basically, I spent at least half the video telling the story about how this film came to be instead of, y’know, talking about the ACTUAL movie.
So if you wanna see the overall journey of how this solo Venom venture started -- from Avi Arad bullying Sam Raimi to putting him in Spider-Man 3 to them immediately shifting this film from rated R to PG-13 so that they can make it more MCU adjacent -- click the link either at the end of the video or in the description down below.
But for this one, I feel like you all DESERVE not only a full and thorough explanation about how this movie in its ENTIRETY makes me wish I was doing literally anything else other than watching it...
But also how they had the PERFECT set up to tackle a proper real-life social issue in its story and completely dropped the ball in a way that ruins any hope of SALVAGING this film from just putting it on as background noise (pauses) FOR ME.
I have to clarify that despite my growing level of inebriation, I am not the end-all-be-all deciding factor regarding whether or not this movie is bad
And I’m not even including my bias toward Venom or the symbiotes here, because I hate them all.
I hate Venom, I hate Carnage, I hate Anti-Venom, I hate his little family of Psycho Ranger-ass symbiotes and Marvel’s concept of the symbiotes in general.
But I’ve seen good movies with characters and concepts I dislike that succeeded in making them at least tolerable for me; the Deadpool movies are a great example of this.
These are my opinions, my points, and you are welcome to agree or disagree with them as you see fit
I also want it on record that all of my thoughts and opinions were made and established 100% sober. But in order for me to talk about this film, I honestly need THIS
(pours another glass) I’m gonna end up drinking this entire bottle in this video (pauses) I’m ready.
God Has Abandoned Us
So there’s a few things that throw off my suspension of disbelief regarding the first act of this film about sentient alien oil slicks that are just picky and petty...
/For example, the fact that an unemployed Eddie Brock with seemingly no income coming in can afford what looks to be this 850 to 900 square foot one bedroom apartment in 2018 San Francisco -- even if it IS on the quote-unquote Bad Side of town -- has me calling bullshit every time I watch this movie/
But everything else that the movie does in Act One kinda helps set up one of the main problems I have with it, which -- real talk -- is characterization.
The characters in question? Eddie Brock, Carlton Drake and Riot.
Now I specify Eddie Brock in this regard and ONLY Eddie because we technically don’t meet Venom until Act 2, /and trust me; we’re DEFINITELY gonna talk about the two’s relationship soon/
But Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock is in a very weird yet admittedly interesting situation.
Because he doesn’t have Spider-Man to drive his transition from villain to anti-hero like they did five years into his career in Marvel Comics -- he debuted in 1988 and first dabbled in being an anti-hero in 1993 -- they had to find a way to make him more of what he later on transitioned into in the comics in THIS movie without any outside help, while still finding a way to make him Eddie Brock at his core
And they KINDA did a decent job?
I mean, if you’re a casual movie-goer with no knowledge of Eddie and Venom’s history, then you’re fine. And that’s mostly because the movie adjusts Eddie’s original comic book flaws in ways that make him more...digestible. Especially since he can’t associate certain things with Spider-Man here.
Comic Eddie’s flaws involve this weird hybrid of wanting to take responsibility for his actions and constantly looking for scapegoats in order to avoid doing so, which was easily amplified over time by a combination of depression and rage.
Y’know, daddy issues aside, because he DEFINITELY had those.
And this tracks, considering Eddie Brock was created by Todd McFarlane and his Original Character Do Not Steal Spawn goes through pretty much the same thing.
/The thing is that Spider-Man is usually said scapegoat, and Eddie’s blaming of Spider-Man was only amplified by Venom once he realized that because of said flaw, Eddie was the perfect host to allow him to get revenge on his ex-boyfriend for leaving him at the altar./
But it was in Eddie battling this “OG trilogy Kratos” of a flaw that he realized Spider-Man wasn’t the cause of his pain and that he should move on, and Venom KINDA allowed himself to learn that as well, which starts the two on the road of establishing a life together in San Francisco and transition from villain to anti-hero
Because there’s no Spider-Man to properly execute this flaw, movie Eddie dials said flaw down in a way that makes it reasonable enough to be likable out the gate.
/The anger and depression is still there, but this time they amplify something else at first that’ll later on feed into his initial character flaw; his stubbornness and persistence, which is based on his sense of morality the movie establishes he’s developed after years of being an investigative reporter./
And as we see in this movie, this persistence constantly gets him in trouble.
/It causes him to jeopardize his livelihood for the sake of getting the truth/ (You’re fired, Eddie)
/It causes him to jeopardize the livelihood of people he cares about by breaking boundaries and crossing lines for the sake of getting the truth/
/And while he does eventually take responsibility for the actions that resulted in him losing everything thanks to wanting to put Carlton Drake in the Hot Seat at least an hour into the movie, he definitely used Drake as a scapegoat to avoid said responsibility by the time the six-month fast-forward happened up until he and Venom became one./
The only difference between how comic Eddie uses Spider-Man as his scapegoat and movie Eddie using Drake as his scapegoat, is that the movie tells us Eddie blaming Drake for being at his lowest is justified because Drake is actually one of the film’s main villains.
/And because the accusations Eddie made against Drake are actually true, he’s immediately placed in more of an anti-hero light right off the bat quicker than his comic book counterpart./
And speaking...of Carlton...Drake (closed-eyed sigh)
/Everything I said about Eddie Brock and how the movie impressed me regarding the rework of his characterization while still staying true to his core immediately goes out the window thanks to this fuck./
My opinions about it pretty much remained unchanged from when I commented on them in my Film Friday video. Drake’s dialogue, and as a result, his character -- despite execution -- sounds like it was written by an inexperienced emo-leaning middle schooler who considers himself a savant in creative writing, specifically because he’s the only one in his 8th grade class who decided to actually DO any.
And you have to stop yourself from laughing out loud when you read it in front of him because he asked your opinion, once you find out in the middle of everything that this character is supposed to be taken seriously after you initially thought that it was satire or a parody of these types of characters. Otherwise, you’ll hurt his feelings and discourage him from actually trying to get better.
Like, there’s definitely potential, and both the lack of dimensions and the edgelord dialogue of the villain makes sense considering the kid’s personality and what he’s into because he’s trying to replicate things he likes and thinks are deep.
And when you READ it, you know for these reasons alone that no agent or publisher would look at this and go “This kids ready for the big leagues” BECAUSE HE’S NOT.
/This is what the writing is like for Carlton Drake. Because of the combination of the writing and the Riz Ahmed’s delivery, what could be considered camp in any other regard instead comes off as cringe, all because they saw Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor rooftop monologue in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice 2 years earlier, and attempted to replicate that with every waking moment of Carlton, not understanding that the moment worked because the characterization properly paced itself to get there./
Because there are actual moments in Venom where Carlton can come off as the intimidating, threatening, sociopathic lawful evil multinational conglomerate villain the movie wants us to believe he is.
/But every time he intimidates the scientist who wants to expose him, whenever he disregards the curiosity of a black girl by telling her to always ask questions in the face of adversity DESPITE NEVER CHOOSING TO HEAR OR ANSWER HER QUESTION, every time he flaunts his “I Won Capitalism But I’m A Good Guy, I Swear” badge that gave him the Tax Break HM and allows Government Pokemon at level 70 or higher to listen to him, every time the movie and the script succeeds in making us believe he’s an actual threat, shit like THIS happens/ (The “Isaiah” speech in full this time, but cut between the scene and me drinking with the audio playing to avoid copyright strike)
Now, I’m not gonna say that multibillionaires don’t constantly sound like this in real life. Y’know, because Elon Musk exists...
But I cannot for the life of me sit down and say this is an interesting or a well-written villain, and I’m in a constant state of fusion-danced second-hand embarrassment and disappointment every time he appears on screen.
Honestly he and Riot deserve each other. Because Riot...is just as bad?
First of all, he makes bad narrative decisions considering what his goals are that the writers only had him do to play into the symbiotes horror factor.
Like, I understand that he deems Venom and the other symbiotes Drake captured insignificant because there’s more of them and Drake has the means to bring them to Earth
/But my original critique of him choosing to spend 6 months globetrotting to the Life Foundation instead of going back to the crash site after assuming the body of the EMT driver as a host still holds up once you realize we could’ve still had all of those scenes of him killing and possessing peeps, but still be relatively close to the members of the Life Foundation who swooped up the other three symbiotes, which was his main goal/
Yes, I am aware that what I just stated was technically me pulling a CinemaSins. And I HATE pulling a CinemaSins. Because FUCK CinemaSins.
But I did this because Riot’s actions in act one and how I feel about them are merely a TASTE of the disdain I felt in the one to follow, and only really added on to my dislike of the film overall.
Because while Act One basically used the terrible characterization of the movie’s human villain to cancel out the pretty decent revamping of Eddie’s characterization from the comics in order for it to properly translate in this movie...
What keeps me constantly refusing to give this film my time of day -- even on a “so bad it’s good” level -- is how the second act literally SHITS on the concept of character development.
Especially when it comes down to the symbiotes and their hosts.
Now I know I already did this bit in my previous video. But not only do I really think it applies here, but it’s a good bit, and if I’m gonna talk about this movie for a third time, I’m gonna enjoy myself.
/So in the case of Eddie changing Venom’s mind/ (You did Eddie)
You Are Making Us Look Bad
/So the second act introduces us to Venom proper and both Eddie and himself being forced to work together. Venom’s taking advantage of the fact that -- as far as he knows at the time -- Riot isn’t around to boss him around, so he kinda has this new planet all to himself. He’s also succeeded in conning Eddie by not telling him the complete truth regarding their symbiosis; that despite their compatibility, Venom feeds off of Eddie in order to survive, and does this despite biting off what...two heads before the two of them are separated in the hospital?/
This being the nature of the symbiotes doesn’t really surprise me much; both in the realm of Marvel comics and in this Spider-Man-less Sony universe.
It isn’t even something that’s reserved specifically for Venom, /because in Act 3, we see that Riot is also able to con and manipulate Drake into doing things that he wants after they achieve symbiosis, because Carlton Drake is a fucking dumbass/(I. We? We)
But because Eddie and Venom are both the focus and the anti-heroes in this story, you’d imagine that Venom would see the error of his ways and look at Eddie as a partner and someone he cares about rather than just a vessel by the time the final showdown between Drake and Riot happens, right?
/After all, he CLEARLY attributed Eddie to changing his mind about wanting to invade Earth with symbiotes/
I’m not saying that’s a problem, because it’s not. Considering the entire plot of the movie, this form of development for both Eddie and Venom is kinda expected if we’re supposed to believe that they can properly act, collaborate and exist as one by the time the movie’s over.
What I am saying is that WE NEVER SEE THAT FUCKING HAPPEN.
Once Venom makes himself known to Eddie in act 2, there are only two things Eddie cares about. Exposing Drake and separating himself from Venom.
Yes, they make it known that Venom pretty much got a cliff notes cheat sheet on Eddie’s overall life and personality up until then, but it’s never really used as a factor to help sway Venom’s decision-making process regarding wanting to be the top dog in leading this imperialist symbiote colonization of Earth before learning Riot is alive and kicking.
And because of his aforementioned desires, Eddie doesn’t do much -- if ANYTHING -- to help sway Venom in that direction
/What we received INSTEAD is the motorcycle car chase scene that leads up to the films first Venom reveal that lead to THIS “gem” of a line (so many snacks so little time), Venom’s attempt at being intimidating regarding his opinions of Earth before the two of them went Fuck 12 on SFPD (Your world is not so ugly after all. I’m almost sorry to see it end), and Eddie calling Venom out on his lies after the two are separated in the hospital/ (we’re done)
And while you can argue that there was an attempt for the two to connect when Venom was able to convince Eddie to apologize to Anne for screwing her out of her job during his interview with Drake, which was a HORRIBLE apology, by the way...
(whatever I did, I’m sorry)
I’d say that one instance isn’t enough for Venom to come to the conclusion that he has about both Earth and Eddie’s role in convincing him.
Literally nothing happened in order to justify Venom eventually feeling that way outside of going “Oh shit, Riot’s still around? Damn, they’re not gonna listen to me if he has the same idea I have! I might as well off him and stay my ass here!”
/Making the points he made before stating what he stated -- and that Eddie rightfully so gave him shit about -- more truthful than saying that Eddie convinced him to change his mind/
And as you can imagine, considering everything I experienced in the first act, this attempt at showing the result of implied development that never truly happened over the course of the movie, not only made me care about it even less than I initially did...
/But it also made me less invested in the final battle between the two symbiotes and their two hosts in act three. Even moreso, because every time I watch Venom and Riot’s oil slick fight I literally become a nauseous wreck/
“But La’Ron, Eddie and Venom build up a better rapport and eventually get to that level legitimately in “Let There Be Carnage.”
OKAY??? GOOD FOR “LET THERE BE CARNAGE,” THEN!
I’m talking about VENOM. VENOM 2018. Why would I incorporate elements from the sequel of the movie I’m specifically talking about?
I’ll get to “Let There Be Carnage” when I get to “Let There Be Carnage,” which will be NEXT MONTH! I ain’t watching or talking about these bitches back to back; I have ASTHMA.
You’re lucky I’m talking about THIS motherfucker for the third time! Shit...
...I’m Having A Really Hard Time.
Now the question on...some of y’all’s lips is “does this movie have any social commentary despite its whackness?”
The answer in its entirety is “No, but it THINKS it does.”
Venom had a great opportunity to comment on the state of homelessness in big and thriving metropolitan cities and them either constantly treating them like the trash you forgot to take out or the room you forgot to clean before company arrived in order to keep up appearances.
The irony in most of these cases is that the company the city is trying to impress in this analogy, is an actual fucking company.
/And considering that it’s the Life Foundation doing the work for San Francisco in this case because thanks to Carlton Drake obtaining his “I Won Capitalism But I’m A Good Guy, I Swear” badge so he can finally fight the Elite Four, this movie also had a great opportunity to comment on big businesses capitalistic role in homelessness across the united states and seeing the working class as nothing but a means to an end for them to maximize profits and fulfill their own goals/
The big business angle is the closest that the film got, I will admit.
/But it missed the mark in being proper commentary on the real-life situation by focusing on Drake’s roller-coastery attempts at being an intimidating villain until bonding with Riot, and focusing on the wrong aspects of Eddie and Venom’s relationship after Venom jumped off of Maria -- Eddie’s FAVORITE homeless person -- and on to him/
Which is sad, because considering the word of the day with this movie is PARASITE (PeeWee’s Playhouse sound effect)
They literally could’ve used the fact that symbiotes feeding off of their hosts until there’s nothing left despite being capable of symbiosis, and have that reflect that of big business feeding off the labor of the working class until they’re nothing left of them but dried up husks.
/This could’ve been easily remedied by having Riot first and foremost hitch a ride with a Life Foundation agent when the ship crashed in Malaysia, witness what Drake was doing with the symbiotes after some small time away from the place so Venom could bond and escape with Eddie, and then sneak back to bond with one of the kidnapped homeless that’s capable of symbiosis instead of Drake himself./
One of the ways we can show how much companies truly care about their employees is to make the homeless individual in question Trevor Cole, Riot’s first host and one of Drake’s employees in the comics.
/Cole can try and plead with Drake not to experiment on him because he used to work for Drake before he was unfairly fired -- which is something we’ve definitely seen Drake do in this film. However, because he was a small cog in Drake’s machine, he doesn’t even know who Cole is, nor does he care. Riot bonds with cole, does the manipulation thing symbiotes tend to do in order to fuel his aggression, and the two off Drake and everyone else in THEIR attempt to bring the symbiotes to earth./
But because Cole is a victim that’s being manipulated for Riot’s personal gains, the end fight is a bit different and allows the audience to care about his demise -- and provide ACTUAL sympathy that the movie initially wanted us to think Venom developed -- instead of just emotionlessly watching a boring billionaire villain blowing up in a rocket ship.
(Takes another sip of wine)
I’d say hire me to write your Venom movies... But don’t hire me to write your Venom movies; I will LITERALLY take anyone else.
Conclusion
Readers, even when I’m able to put my bias about Venom and the symbiotes in general aside, Venom 2018 still proves itself to be...not a good movie.
While it does do a decent job at finding a way to make Eddie Brock work outside of the shadow of Spider-Man...
It’s constantly overshadowed by the poor characterization of other important characters in the film...
Development results that didn’t put in the work and undermine said solo potential for Eddie Brock...
And a plot point that had the potential to be a great driving force for both Eddie and Venom if it didn’t abandon its initial hook once the two finally met
/As far as I’m concerned, Venom -- despite being one with characters I dislike -- is a film filled with a lot of decent ideas that’s ruined by immature dialogue, poorly paced development, and writing that’s only brave enough to use a real-life bureaucracy problem as a backdrop for its flimsy plot, because they didn’t know how to actually implement it in ways to highlight it as an actual problem without offending the people -- and corporations -- that should actually be offended by it/ (pussy)
So as most of y’all know, this video was only made possible by the Readers over on Patreon.
Back in September of 2022, we crossed $1000/month, which you all showed up and showed out regarding my previous landlord situation -- more about what happened there in the card in the upper right hand corner
And I had it set that once we crossed $1000 a month, I would do not only yet ANOTHER wine-drunk review of Venom 2018, but also one of the sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”
Now despite the Patreon dropping down to around $960 a month since August, I will still be making the Let There Be Carnage video and it’ll be out next month for...recovery reasons
But if you ended up picking up what I put down here or on any of my other sober videos, I’d definitely appreciate it if you joined the Patreon and got it back up to a grand a month
And if you need MORE incentive, if this video and next month's Carnage video ends up tickling your fancy, if we get the Patreon up to $2000 a month, I’ll do another wine-drunk video on Morbius. And I know y’all LOVE to shit on Morbius; I’m something of a Morbius Shitter myself!
Also, let me know in the comment section below if you wanna see me talk about movies this way...but SOBER
While this is a Patreon unlock, it’s also a backdoor pilot/soft reboot of my previous Film Friday segment because I wasn’t satisfied with the engagement the previous ones were receiving and I’ve been wanting to change it up to better reflect not just my style of criticism, but both the analysis and perspective direction I’ve been taking the channel in lately.
So if you like this new format for movie critiques and want to see more SOBER ones, feel free to let me know and which movies you want me to tackle next in the comment section below.
Other than that, all my social media and platform links are on the Linktree in the upper right hand corner of my channel page so make sure you give them a follow, because they do a better job at keeping you informed of new videos better than the one I actually post them on.
You can also follow me on Twitch, because I’m gaming regularly on Twitch now
Nevertheless, make sure you subscribe to the channel AND turn on notifications. That way you’ll get a heads up on whenever I post a new video
But until then, this is Readus 101. Class Dismissed.
