No matter how high the so-called drawing performance is, it cannot conceal its poor quality. Because of my work, I used to consider the box office factors when discussing such movies. Now, to me, the numbers have become less and less meaningful. At the level of pure film criticism, it is obvious that the work-only theory should be more inclined, and all the aesthetic meaning and social value are radiated by the work itself. And celebrity appeal, public opinion effect, topic marketing, and even Internet scoring are all off-market factors that are extremely minor or even not worth considering. Of course, with the exception of extreme bad movies and classics that have been proven by time, most movies are not at a level that is not lower than that. Therefore, there are naturally different opinions about the quality of the work itself. Therefore, no matter what this article is, it is only a statement from one family. In today's era when the public is commenting on carnivals and likes to team up, giving a bad review to a hot film has become a very costly behavior.
So, is "Venom" as the first movie in the Sony Marvel universe, is it loud enough? The answer is obviously no.
This latest comic film, which brings together Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams, hits the street unexpectedly and logically. Originally, this year I didn't have it in my movie watching plan. On the one hand, my personal expectations were not very high, and on the other hand, the mainland was lagging behind the schedule, so I just waited for the release with the mentality of letting it go.
Coincidentally, when I was in Taiwan, "Venom" was released two days earlier than North America. In addition, the planning of the two major series of film masters and the theory of film history caused me to be overwhelmed. So after thinking about it, I should go to see it with my friends and relatives. Play 2D IMAX, at least you can relax (otherwise you may choose to watch some art films that are not available on the mainland). After watching it, I was not disappointed because I was holding low expectations. However, the degree of dullness did not let me relax completely.
There are a lot of problems with this movie. After the last easter egg was gone, I wrote a quick review on the Internet, which naturally gave me a low score. Then I saw that the foreign media scores were lifted, and the low scores on Rotten Tomatoes had green hairs. Then I saw the comments of some Taiwanese viewers, which were also mixed.
Some people say that it may be a bad review of "The Birth of a Star" invited by the navy. At least from my own point of view, "Venom", as Sony's "lasting fight", basically failed. Of course, it is too dark to say that this film is as bad as the 2015 version of Fantastic Four. In other words, it is one or two orders of magnitude stronger than "Green Lantern".
Some of the behind-the-scenes information about this film was generally understood before. If these information are accurate and reliable, then the negative word of mouth of "Venom" should indeed be backed by Sony. For example, Eddie Bullock, played by Tom Hardy, is possessed by Venom, and the narrative rhythm has changed from a tractor to a Ferrari. The terrible look and feel of rushing to the end should be deleted for PG-13. reason.
There is also Sony's own film strategy. Marvel's MCU has been in the best for ten years. Although this year's "Infinity War" has another major event, in fact the bonus period has gradually passed. Other companies want to create a similar view of the movie universe, almost all of them are in a deadly situation. Needless to say, Warner’s DCEU, Universal’s "Dark Universe" has almost been turned into a idiot by "The Mummy", and the legendary "Monster Universe" is also being developed in a hobble. The cake of the high-concept movie universe has almost been eaten, and there is not much left in the shelf life.
Sony holds more than 900 Marvel characters, but they are mostly second- and third-rate. Because the "Amazing Spider-Man" series failed to meet expectations, now the bug has returned to the MCU. However, Sony doesn't want to give up on this cake all at once, especially those characters in the Spider-Man series who are both good and evil. It would be a pity to throw them away before being on the screen. So they racked their brains and launched a "Sony's Universe of Marvel Characters (also known as Sony's Marvel Cinematic Universe, formerly commonly known as Sony's Marvel Cinematic Universe)". This can almost be regarded as a Spider-Man supporting role universe without Spider-Man, which shows its embarrassing situation. Before there are any decent works, Disney Marvel will probably not give much support.
Previously, it was planned to make an independent film for everyone in the "Six of Sinister Group", and then there was news of "Venom", and then teacher Tang joined in love, which seems to have added a lot of points to the promotion of the film. However, the response of several trailers could not be said to be very popular, and later announced the classification as PG-13, which surprised many comic fans.
Judging from the results, Venom does not match PG-13. The main reason is naturally the particularity of this character and the style of the original. First of all, he is a villain, and he is extremely dark and brutal, one can see from his terrifying appearance. Secondly, because of the increasing popularity, he finally turned his back on evil, and had his own series to join forces with Spider-Man to fight the enemy. Even initially, it was almost rarely driven by purely just motives. As an extraterrestrial parasite combined with a human being on Earth, his spiritual level is more complicated and cannot be portrayed solely from the perspective of an anti-hero.
Therefore, everyone was expecting to see another limited comics movie after "Deadpool" and "Wolverine", and the role of Venom in the limited level can play a lot of tricks, which is also very suitable. However, because of Sony's conservative business strategy, it finally became a family carnival movie drastically. As a result, the film unsurprisingly reveals a nondescript tonality, more like a flattery to Disney.
This film is based on two series of comics, "Deadly Guardian" released in 1993 and "Symbiont Planet" released in 1995. The former is the first time that Venom has become a positive figure, joining Spider-Man against the descendants of the symbiote. The latter talks about the Earth being invaded by a large number of alien symbionts, forcing Spider-Man to work with Venom and Carnage to resist the invasion.
I haven't read all of these two series, probably because of the time, the plot design is hard to say how brilliant, and it is not particularly stylized like Frank Miller and Alan Moore. However, the movie "Venom" integrates these two materials together, and it can only be said that it is adapted but not edited, that is, it has not developed a new style and taste, and has also lost the essence of the original work. What a pity.
The overall structure of the film is-there is no structure. If we have to do a formal analysis, we can only reluctantly cut it into two segments: before and after Eddie Bullock was possessed by Venom. Before Eddie was possessed, what we saw was a long, boring and embarrassing American love soap opera. After Eddie became Venom, what we got was an alien visitor who loved to tell cold jokes, a plot full of loopholes, a narrative rhythm that was frustrated, and a few playful action scenes.
It turns out that Tom Hardy and Michelle Williams did not call at all. These are two outstanding actors who can play a role in their respective works, but in this film they are reduced to a one plus one less than zero effect. From the first scene of the film, when Michelle Williams threw a pillow at Tom Hardy, an unspeakable barrier and embarrassment filled the air. The two people seemed to be holding some unspeakable secrets, and they didn't dare to look into each other's eyes at all. The facial expressions and body movements are also quite stiff, and even the lines make people feel upside-down. Moreover, the two people are often separated by the distance of a bus, and they really respect each other. I have to admit that the rivalry between Garfield and Stone in "The Amazing Spider-Man" is better than this.
The shape design is also confusing. Michelle Williams is such a temperamental actress who has never disappointed in "Brokeback Mountain", "Manchester by the Sea", and "Money World". How come the look in this film is like inflatable Like a doll? Especially the pair of eyebrows as thick as Tang Lao wet lips, it is too easy to laugh. Moreover, the internal writing of this character is quite a failure, inevitably becoming a "green tea bitch".
On the other hand, Teacher Tang is really "old and wet" this time, and his hair has never been dried in the whole impression. Is it rainy in San Francisco? Or does the film want to show a cyberpunk-like atmosphere? The style is also not helpful to the character, but from time to time there is always the sense of sight of "Warrior", "Rewind Life" and even "Mad Max", so the identity of this reporter seems to violate. In addition, this is also after "The Dark Knight Rises", "Mad Max", "Dunkirk" and other films, Tang Laoshi puts on the "mask" again. In short, although Mr. Tang was immersed in a very good acting state, he did not match the state of the movie throughout (it can also be said that the state of the movie cannot be found).
The story of the so-called genre film can be simple, but it must not be empty. "Venom" violates many taboos of genre films. The film can be seen as three story lines, one is the Tang Lao wet line, the other is the conspiracy line of the villain Charlton Drake, and the other is the riot line of travel around the world. Each of the three lines has been very clichéd, and it seems very perfunctory when they meet several times. All plots are driven by the simplest kind of causal chain, like a primary school student taking a picture of his thigh if he can’t write a composition.
The emotional drama between Eddie Bullock and Annie has completely collapsed, and in terms of career, the film does not tell how well. Because the interview with Drake was resigned, this line basically stopped developing, showing a lot of passages of Eddie's downturned life, but it did not bring out any characterization and plot transition. I can clearly feel that before the conscience of the female doctor of the villain was discovered, the screenwriter had no idea about this line, and could not say anything. When the female doctor found Eddie, the script actually had to set up an old-fashioned refusal segment, and then there was no transition or reaction scene, and Eddie was immediately forced to be stimulated (seeing his girlfriend into a new relationship), So smoothly accepted the request of the female doctor. Such an outdated plot design is like a cultural relic in a museum.
As a symbiote, the venom also has its own emotions and consciousness, which could have made a lot of work. Unlike Sam Remy’s "Spider-Man 3" reporter who has personality defects, Tang Laoshi’s Eddie’s three views are correct, he has a strong sense of justice, and he does not bow to money and authority. The rhetoric of "good people" is purely deceiving consumers). And as we all know, venom is extremely cruel and has no sense of human morality. The confrontation between the two different ideologies should have been a major attraction. The ideological confrontation between the host and the parasite and the struggle of conquering and anti-phagocytosis should be quite fascinating.
But the movie has no attempt in this regard. Xu is that this kind of depiction is too difficult for the director and screenwriter, and commercial considerations are not ruled out. In any case, when the venom is attached to Eddie, the film immediately becomes a copycat version of "Parasite Beast". "Parasitic Beast" is of course a very good comic, the first movie version is also not bad, but how can the copycat version be better? Even Izumi Shinichi and Xiaoyou both have very subtle characterizations of psychological changes. On the other hand, Eddie and Venom's process from confrontation to compromise to reconciliation is far less vivid.
The film almost only used a spoof-comedy passage in a high-end restaurant to show the conflict between Venom and Eddie, and then only the sanitizer said sweet "I like you"... well, add another sentence, "You and I are both dicks." ", trying to explain all the problems, and turned it into an emotional counselor and life mentor. It stands to reason that symbiosis is a kind of role relationship that is particularly easy to show off. Although it is a host, it is very passive, and although it is a parasite, it is very strong. The same is true for the pair of Venom and Eddie. From the main point of view, they should follow a process of confusion-fear-surrender-confrontation-compromise/reconciliation/escape/anti-conquest. It contains dozens of points that can stimulate the substitution of inner contradictions and emotions. However, this film confined the conflict to the two superficial levels of confusion to fear, and then directly let Eddie and Venom become a knot of Jinlan. It's too tasteless and boring.
The vulgar character shaping and character relationship handling similar to this film deserves our vigilance. Just imagine if Hollywood writes all superheroes as a guilty party and a shaman, if the virtue of being a slapstick is still popular, there may be all kinds of diversification in the future. Character writing loses its meaning, and even genre movies as a whole will face the crisis of unified totalitarian creation.
The empty characters and the mentally retarded plot design not only ruined outstanding actors such as Tang Laoshi and Michelle, but also ruined the image of venom that has been painstakingly managed by countless cartoonists and screenwriters for more than 30 years. Ruben Frescher is a mediocre director who lacks control over large-budget productions and scripts, and lacks scheduling skills. This time, there is actually a bit of extraordinary performance in the audiovisual. So apart from the riddled text level, the image construction of certain passages in the film is commendable.
On the line of Riot Global Travel, relying on light and color, the atmosphere is not bad, especially the short video style after the policewoman was parasitized, which obviously inherited Ruben's own "Zombieland." But bridge segments are commonplace in countless horror films and disaster films, and it is difficult to give people a sense of suspense or tension. In the plot of Venom confronting the police in the building, the use of smoke is pretty good, and the mirroring is relatively good, so it shows the texture of some monster movies. However, in those scenes of small and fresh conversations, there were a lot of problems with editing and scheduling.
Finally, the "glue chaos" between the venom and the riot can still be seen visually. Including styling and action design, it is much better than the previous few painless action scenes. Many viewers felt that the colors of the two monsters were too close, and it was a night scene, and it was not easy to distinguish the enemy from the other. However, I don't think this problem is. Instead, it is the stop-motion modeling of the two sides. The CG is quite bad, and it has fallen to the level of domestic web games, and it is directly broken.
There are also some embedded advertisements in this film, such as Sony’s own PS4 and Tencent QQ, but they are relatively restrained and hard to have a serious negative impact on the perception. Of the two easter eggs, the first one is not bad. It pave the way for the sequel, mainly because the actors surprise people. It should be the second collaboration with the director. The performance style seems to reproduce the "born murderer". This episode alone crushed the innocent IQ (mentally retarded) villain in the feature film. The second one has nothing to do with SUMC and Venom. It is a patch advertisement for the animated version of "Spider-Man: Multiverse", which spoofs the train section of Sam Remy's "Spider-Man 2".
The overall film has too many defects and too few highlights. I personally think that if there are discount tickets or free viewing opportunities, I can still watch it. Of course, Tang Laoshi fans should join in, because he is not only wet all the way, but also played almost all the comedy potential of his acting career in the film.
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