At least on paper, for Sony Pictures to tell Venom’s origin story without a mention of Spider-Man makes as much sense as telling the story of Adam while pretending that Eve never existed in the narrative.

The reason why the super villain/anti-hero Venom looks like a hulked up Spidey on steroids has everything to do with the wall-crawler. Originally, the extraterrestrial symbiote bonded with Peter Parker. When Parker realised that the powerful living black suit he was donning was dangerous, he ditched it, after which the symbiote bonded with disgraced journalist Eddie Brock, forming the web-slinger’s greatest enemy, Venom. Brock partially blamed Spider-Man for his career demise and his projection of Venom stemmed from his desire to be a superior version of the web-slinger. Hence, Venom came out looking like Spider-Man XXL.

So then why does Sony’s Venom not carry a whisper about Spider-Man even though the studio says they are in the same cinematic universe? Well, the answer is complicated. You see, back in the day, Marvel sold the cinematic rights to its most prized characters to various studios such as Sony and Fox with several contractual caveats. This included properties such as Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. It is partially why we have so many terrible films involving these characters — because the licensors didn’t want the rights to revert back to Marvel.

Although Venom is the byproduct of a contractual tussle between Sony and Marvel, in the end it works out just short of fine for the alien symbiote

With the rather mediocre Spider-Man 3 (2007), Sony hit a roadblock after two massive successes. A desperate attempt to reboot the franchise didn’t go well either, possibly because of brand fatigue. Meanwhile, Marvel Studios had begun to weave its magic by making lesser known characters such as Iron Man and the likes famous, and fans were eager to see Spidey join Marvel’s cinematic stable. Perhaps concerned that Sony’s desperation would further damage the Spider-Man brand, Marvel reached a deal with Sony whereby they essentially licensed the character back so they could have him be a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in a short-term deal.

So while Sony still owns all the characters in the Spider-Man universe, it can’t do anything, without Marvel’s consent under these new terms, directly involving Spider-Man himself. I am sure Sony wouldn’t have minded a Spider-Man reference or a cameo in Venom, but I bet it was Marvel that didn’t agree, having worked so hard to re-establish the superhero for the MCU that it didn’t want to risk associating the newest member of the Avengers team with a potentially bad film that would confuse and complicate their current storyline.

Unable to mention the yin to Venom’s yang, Sony reworks the origin tale of the anti-hero. In Venom, four alien symbiotes are brought back to Earth by a bioengineering corporation led by their somewhat psychotic CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed). At the same time, a journalist investigating the company, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) has his career cut short by Drake when he asks the wrong questions. Later, when he digs further, he is infected by one of the symbiotes and the two eventually form Venom.

Having been a fan of Venom and its co-creator, artist Todd McFarlane, I wasn’t sure how I’d like the retooled back story. To be honest, it works fine for the most part.

Having been a fan of Venom and its co-creator, artist Todd McFarlane, for decades I wasn’t sure how I’d like the retooled back story. To be honest, it works fine for the most part. In fact, without Spider-Man, the character feels more independent and interesting. Unfortunately, the film has a whole host of other problems, especially on the technical end.

To start with, though the action is entertaining, the CGI can be noticeably bad. Then, there is the abrupt pacing, sloppy editing and amateurish mistakes by director Ruben Fleischer. It is rumoured that the film was heavily chopped in post-production, an issue that the film’s star has also complained about, and it shows. While the second act flows without speed bumps, the first and third are jarringly paced, with many context-adding sequences clearly missing. This is particularly obvious in the last act in sequences involving the antagonist and the battle between two symbiotes.

Other editing errors would have been amusing if they didn’t break the suspension of disbelief. Most of these involve Tom Hardy, where during a single dialogue sequence his hairstyle changes noticeably out of the blue in between sentences, or people walking behind him disappear into thin air as he is talking — evidence that multiple takes were hastily stitched together regularly in Venom.

In spite of the laundry list of problems, I must say I enjoyed Venom for much of its runtime, and that’s due to the amusing characterisation of the symbiote and its hilarious chemistry with Eddie Brock, involving the sort of sardonic humour that perfectly suits an anti-hero flick of this nature. The best parts of Venom are so good, they certainly deserve to be in a better film.

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence, action and language

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 21st, 2018