I was having a bad day the first time I tried to go see Venom. I had to drop off my girlfriend on the way to the theater, and we left late, so I was in a rush. I had 10 minutes to get to the theater from her drop off point, but along the way, a series of bumbling mistakes and unfortunate coincidences happened along the way. First, the road I would have normally used was backed up due to the slowest railway crossing in all of Texas, so I took an unknown back route. I was making good time, until I got to the stoplight right in front of the theater, which was now some kind of modern intersection where for some reason you can only turn left instead of pass through. Now I have to drive further away from the theater only to turn back around. Only 4 minutes until the start and I haven’t even parked, but I have faith in myself. I get on my phone and bought my tickets while I was waiting for the light to change. But I accidentally chose the wrong card and charged it to an account I’d rather not use, but it’s fine, I have the ticket. Luck goes my way, I find a parking spot on the ground floor of the garage. I hoof it to the theater, even take a second to validate my parking. I have one minute to spare. I check the ticket, theater 3, row 2, seat 7. I rush up the stairs and whip open the theater door, elated, but only for the briefest of moments. To my surprise, Crazy Rich Asians is playing. I look back down at my ticket, and at the top in big bold print is the name of a completely different theater on the other side of town. Same start time, same company, different theater. I had to walk out defeated. A week passes and I sit down for Venom, in the right theater, without issue. Tom Hardy grunts, stomps, and oafishly crashes around on screen and I can’t help but think back to how hard I had to work to get here. Oddly, the whole experience helped pull me deeper into the film. I was just a good guy trying to get from A to B. I gotta tell ya, that is exactly what Venom feels like.

Much like a trip from A to B, it should feel uneventful. A to Z has a lot of stops, but not A to B. Ruben Fleischer crafts Venom in the same way he has other fan favorites in his catalog, namely 30 Minutes or Less and Zombieland. He has a talent for filming a journey, and watching Eddie Brock’s turned out to be a fun, action-packed treat. Fleischer doesn’t draw the best out his actors, but somehow draws the eccentricities and puts them on display, like a caricature artist on the pier. Eddie Brock, in my memory, has always been characterized as a guy who wants to be great and isn’t afraid to cheat to get there, and that’s kind of how he is laid out here, only we are on his side instead of Peter Parker’s. It was a nice reprieve. It was also nice to be out from underneath the weight of 10 years of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. And you might think without Spider-Man acting as natural predator, would Venom fare well in a universe where he is the apex? It’s rare that the audience is left to come up with a villian for a villian in a comic book movie. Turns out, Venom’s only enemy is other… venoms. Surprisingly, all this works for this standalone comic film.

The major critique here is going to sound more like advice. Don’t ask too many questions. This film is much more of a saturday morning cartoon. It doesn’t have the same depth of emotion you will have experienced in Captain America or The Dark Knight. It doesn’t have a particular hard theme to grasp or discern. It isn’t a puzzle. Its sugar cereal. Count Chocula. Or better yet, its that limited-time run of a cereal based on a movie or one of those Batman Returns cups from McDonalds you get for an extra buck, now found for the same price on the shelves of Goodwill. Everything is on the surface in this movie. Eddie Brock and Venom get along because the movie says they have to. They have a villain because they need one. The major plus in the film comes from Anne (Michelle Williams) who isn’t just some love interest for Eddie. She is a living, breathing person who takes Eddie head on, but is also his love interest. She’s his love interest second. Also, Riz Ahmed puts in time as a great antagonist in the shoes of save-the-world-my-way, scientist/capitalist Carlton Drake. Lastly, in her least funny, but still enjoyable roll, Jenny Slate made a pretty great scientist. Girl looks good in a lab coat.

I can’t say for certain that this is a must see film for anyone, but if like Zombieland and don’t mind it knocked down to PG-13, you are in for a good time. The story and the characters in it are cartoony, especially Tom Hardy’s Brock, who seems to have a problem not lumbering everywhere he goes. Its like he never stopped playing Mad Max. Also, stick around for two post-credits sequences. I won’t ruin it, but, you won’t leave disappointed if you stay. Somehow, the stars really aligned for this one. If the suits at Sony or Big Hollywood had a major hand in this, and it kind of feels like they did, even they get something right sometimes. Give them and the talent behind this film a big hand.

~* 7.5/10 *~