Venom Blu-ray Review: Lots of Origin and How’d They Do That Extras!

By: Lynn Barker

Venom, stars tough, investigative, on-camera reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy). When he asks bigtime industrialist/Lex Luthor type Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) questions about his unethical practices, he is fired and, since Eddie secretly got some of his insider info by looking into girlfriend Anne’s (Michelle Williams) computer notes, she is also fired and dumps him. One of Drake’s projects is trying to “merge” alien symbiotic organisms, brought back to Earth on one of his spaceships, with human beings. When one escapes Drake’s labs and “enters” Eddie’s body, more than the truth will come out.

Eddie asks Drake touchy questionsCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Venom Trailer

Space Invaders

Carlton Drake’s Life Foundation has a spaceship exploring habitable planets and it crashes on Earth carrying four symbiotic lifeforms. One escapes by inhabiting the body of a paramedic. The others are taken to the Foundation labs in San Francisco. Drake is obsessed with bonding the symbiotes with humans so that this new race can live on other worlds when Mankind totally wrecks this one. Reporter Eddie Brock is fired when he asks Drake touchy questions in an interview and his girlfriend Anne, who works for the Foundation, dumps him for stealing info from her.

Eddie and Anne in happy timesCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Experiments

When a symbiote that Drake is experimenting on is able to live a while in a rabbit, he jumps ahead with human trials on vagrants despite objections from employee Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate). Meanwhile, feeling useless, Eddie, drinks and wishes he had Anne, who has moved on with a hot doctor.  Hating the way Drake is killing helpless people, Dr. Skirth offers to take Eddie to the lab to see for himself and write a story. He goes. He sees and takes pictures but a symbiote gets inside him and he runs away noticing he is suddenly very, very fast, agile and hungry!

Dr. Skirth and Drake at their labCourtesy of Sony Pictures

A Voice Inside

At home, Eddie gets sick, can’t eat anything normal and a huge voice from inside calls him by name and demands food! He goes to Anne who is at a restaurant with her doc boyfriend and tries to show her the pictures he took but the “thing” inside keeps trying to find living food and ends up eating a bunch of live lobsters. The doc takes Eddie for an MRI at a hospital where it’s learned that he has some kind of parasite that is destroying his organs and he is also very sensitive to certain sounds. When Dr. Skirth is forced to tell Drake that Eddie houses the escaped symbiote, Drake lets one kill her. At home, Drake’s goon squad attacks Eddie and symbiote Venom partially emerges from him and destroys them all. Freaked, Eddie gets on his motorcycle with Drake’s drones and goons on his trail. After a wild chase during which Venom guides and protects him, Eddie gets the truth. The symbiotes are using humans as “rides” Cooperate or die.

Eddie feels Venom inside at the hospitalCourtesy of Sony Pictures

More Symbiote/Humans

Eddie/Venom, climbs up his ex-office building and leaves his photos and notes on what Drake is up to on his ex-boss’s desk. Finally, as he leaves the building, cops see and shoot at him. He decks them easily. Anne sees him as Venom and is freaked but recovers taking him to the hospital to get help. Meanwhile, another of the symbiotes called Riot inhabits Drake. Venom exits Eddie at the hospital and ends up in a dog. Anne sees the dog and figures it out. Eddie goes to Drake who reveals his wacko plan and sends Eddie with thugs into the woods to be killed.

Toothy VenomCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Big Showdown

Anne, invaded by Venom at the hospital, saves Eddie, kisses him and Venom goes back into him. Riot and Venom/Eddie have a big fight. Eddie must stop Riot from flying into space in one of Drake’s ships to bring back an army of the symbiote lifeforms. Venom likes it here, likes Eddie and wants to stay but he is losing the battle when Anne comes to help by broadcasting a high-pitched sound around the compound. Can Eddie stop Riot? Venom has left his body. Can they be reunited as a force for good?

Venom/Eddie challenges a thiefCourtesy of Sony Pictures

In a mid-credits scene, Eddie prepares to interview incarcerated serial killer Cletus Kasady who is also known as the creature called Carnage.

Eddie Brock pre-VenomCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Special Extra Features

This Blu-ray/DVD/Digital set is really packed with extras that both fans of the comic book Venom and this movie should enjoy:

• Venom Mode – Is picture-in-picture pop-ups that run movie-wide. These contain trivia and insight on the film and are a fun addition.
• 3 Deleted and Extended Scenes – We get more funny dialogue between Eddie and Venom. Venom angrily wrecks a car when its alarm noise drives him nuts and there is a longer prison scene between Eddie and Cletus/Carnage giving Woody Harrelson more to do. Nice!
• From Symbiote to Screen is a longer featurette exploring the Venom character’s origin in the comics with comments from actors and filmmakers. Comic book guru Kevin Smith and a SPFX Supervisor chime in and the intention to present a very dark anti-hero combining action, horror and comedy is discussed. Very thorough extra.
• The Anti-Hero is basically a continuation of the former extra stressing Venom as a very dark character only lightened up by entering Eddie Brock. What Tom Hardy brings to the role is discussed as well as the development of the Venom voice.
• The Lethal Protector in Action offers details on stunts and chases with scenes being shot on location and on set featuring blue screen work and Tom Hardy doing many of his stunts.

Eddie tries to get away on a motorcycleCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• Venom Vision focuses on the director and filmmakers’ vision for the film combining scary and funny…why the director of the popular film Zombieland was perfect for the tone of this film.
• Designing Venom explores how the production design of the Venom character focused on honoring the comic book look of the creature while making him work in a movie. He had to be convincing. Even his very looong tongue had to be included.

Venom and that famous tongueCourtesy of Sony Pictures

• Symbiote Secrets are insider trivia from the comics that are in the film. Did you catch some or more of these?
• Select Scenes Pre-Vis consist of rough, pre-visualization, computer-created storyboards as well as hand-drawn ones that share the screen with the finished product. Interesting.
• 2 Music Videos – We get “Venom” by Eminem and a “Sunflower” by Post Malone which is actually from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Wrapping Up

Extras on this take home set are especially nice for Venom character fans but also better explain the character for the rest of us. However, this set has no audio commentary or a Gag/Blooper Reel.

Anne wants to help EddieCourtesy of Sony Pictures

I feel that the tone of the movie is all over the place; funny, semi-scary etc. Tom Hardy does a great job playing a guy with a body-snatcher being inside him. Rather than super threatening, Venom is more of a hell-raising, cartoonish being in this film. If he did what he does in the comics, the film would have been R-rated. However, this set has so many interesting extras that we can go 4 stars.

Venom Blu-ray Rating: 

Venom Blu-ray CoverCourtesy of Sony Pictures

Get Venom to collect or gift Tuesday, December 18^th

Express Yourself!

Were you a fan of Venom in the comics? Is it fine with you that he is more funny than scary in this movie? Are you a Tom Hardy fan? Get Venom on Blu-ray and write your own review on your profile page or comment below.