Ten years in the making, Venom starring British actor Tom Hardy is finally ready to make his big-screen solo debut.
As one of Marvel’s most notorious and beloved anti-heroes crawls his way into movie theaters, there are also many questions surrounding the project. Like, where’s Spider-Man?
Duh!
Venom is far from a being a household name just yet, certainly not compared to his Marvel stablemate Spidey, to whom Venom has acted as antagonist for several comic plotlines. So for now, here are five things you should know about director Ruben Fleischer’s movie, which was released this weekend.
Who is Eddie Brock/Venom?
Spider-Man’s arch-nemesis Venom, first introduced in comic books in 1988, is actually Eddie Brock, crusading (some would say muckraking) journalist who is fired after accusing the wrong man of being a serial killer (the real killer is later caught by Spider-Man). Worse is to come when he delves too deeply into the activities of the Life Foundation, a shadowy organisation comprised of millionaire survivalists who seek to evade an impending Apocalypse and aren’t above conducting experiments on humans and symbiotes, the formless aliens who can glom onto humans to create single entities with superpowers. The Life Foundation is headed by Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed, an excellent choice bringing some much-needed diversity to the genre). But for Brock his investigation brings disgrace, and his girlfriend (the excellent Michelle Williams) leaves him. Angry, depressed and suicidal, Brock is a prime candidate to be taken over by evil symbiote Venom. Soon the Hardy’s ruggedly handsome features are replaced by Venom’s glistening obsidian skin and elongated eyes the color of egg whites. His permanent grin consists of multiple rows of very pointy teeth; now and then a long, slithery tongue pokes through. Quite delicious in a disgusting way!
But with no Spider Man to face off against we must content ourselves with a showdown with Cletus Kasady, (Woody Harrelson) Brock’s one-time demented jailmate who accidentally fuses with one of Venom’s seeds to form Carnage. It’s all terribly exciting and even with no Spider Man to face off against, Venom is still pretty poisonous fun!
