Monday, December 13, 2021

Review of Venom (2018) + little rant


I just finished watching Venom, its the first movie I've watched in a while, and not to say it was bad, but it reminded me of why I lost interest in cinema. I'll get to that later, for now, let's focus on the movie.

Venom is a decent movie, I wouldn't say it's bad, but I also wouldn't say it's good. I don't know if it's because I've been watching very expressive shows lately, but watching venom made me feel like I was staring at a white wall. Every shot is so clean and stable and smooth, I would understand that in peaceful scenes, but the entire movie is like that, which is kind of jarring. To be fair, the fight scenes had some better camera work, but there were always so many cuts, that it made the fights look strange as well.

Most scenes felt rushed, almost all of them felt meaningless. For the most part, it didn't really feel like I was watching a movie that had a purpose and a story to tell, it mostly just felt like a generic superhero movie that was doing the things it was doing for no narrative reason, but more so because that's what it's supposed to do as a superhero movie.

What I'm trying to say is that it's a very safe and bland movie, perfectly engineered to be watched and loved by the masses and whoever just wants to turn off their brain and watch violent fight scenes. I'm not judging or trying to be disrespectful, I just personally didn't find much to be enjoyed in the movie myself, but I have found time and time again that most people wouldn't agree with my taste.

One thing I did very much enjoy, was the dynamic between Eddie and Venom, and it's quite sad we don't get to see much of it. If it were me, I'd shorten the boring fight scenes and chase scenes and have more moments where Eddie and Venom get to talk with each other. Though I think that should be a very easy thing to figure out, its a movie about them coming together, doing things together, and coming to accept and respect each other, if that were to be the core of the movie, my suggestion would sound obvious, which leads me to believe that that was not the purpose of the movie. Like I said, it doesn't feel like the movie has a story to tell, just an audience to appeal to.

Now, the thing that I believe brings the movie down the most and, like I said, reminded me of why I lost interest in cinema, is the timing and build-up. Movies can be good and can use all of their time perfectly, I personally find it limited since you can do it well, but not much of it. So in movies like Venom, where time is not used well and the build-up is not good, it is no longer a limitation, it is a problem, most of the scenes in venom feel like they could be edited out since most of them don't serve any real purpose.

Just to make it clear, Movies are a very good and interesting media format, but it's very limited in their storytelling, in a way that isn't an issue in longer media, like series. Just like Live action is limited compared to animation, movies are limited compared to series, that isn't to say that any of them are bad, but I personally appreciate media a lot more when there's more nuance to it, more things to analyze, break down and ultimately love or hate.

On the other hand, every now and then, there are movies that manage to accomplish so much with so little time, and that definitely feels impressive and special. But it's not every day we get movies like that, and Venom certainly wasn't one of them. I wouldn't really recommend this movie to anyone who isn't a fan of superhero movies, but I wouldn't stop anyone either. It's not a bad movie, just bland and boring.

Sincerely, Spoon.


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Review of Venom (2018) + little rant

I just finished watching Venom, its the first movie I've watched in a while, and not to say it was bad, but it reminded me of why I lost...