This Week's Review: "Venom"

There wasn’t much choice of movies for the weekend of October 6; I had no interest in the animated “Smallfoot,” and even less in the latest rewriting of “A Star Is Born.” By process of elimination, I wound up seeing the latest comic book movie, “Venom.” I have seen worse, much worse.

“Venom” expands upon one of the early “Spider-Man” films; for a while Peter Parker wore a black suit which was actually a symbiote from a very hostile planet. Parker escaped from the symbiote’s clutches by subjecting it to loud noises, particularly church bells. As in the original stories, the symbiote was popular enough to be given its own comic book. The artists delighted in showing Venom in all his repulsive glory and the film follows suit. You almost feel sorry for the villains Venom eliminates.

The villain in all this is a thinly disguised version of Elon Musk, but the viewer’s interest is on Venom, not in a villain who is a pale shadow of the typical megalomaniacs in the James Bond films. Purists will be happy to know that Stan Lee makes his obligatory appearance, but anyone who expects this film to add to the current “Avengers” continuity…

Fans of Thanos and the Avengers may interested in the trailer for the new “Captain Marvel” film; it is part of the “Avengers” sequence and is high on my priority list.