Venom Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Venom Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 18, 2018

Comic book villains have largely played foils in Superhero films rather than be portrayed as the subjects of a movie. While there are instances where villains have stolen the show or played an expanded role in a picture or even appeared in the title of a film, it's pretty much always been the good guys who take top billing. Things change with Venom, Director Ruben Fleischer's (Zombieland) stab at turning the Superhero film over to a (generally speaking) "bad guy." Fleischer and Writers Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, and Kelly Marcel ultimately present Venom as a gray-area anti-hero and with a humorous streak for the black-clad symbiote rather than risking what might have been a more rewarding push to darker and perhaps even R-rated territory. The end result is a standardized, seemingly watered down film that plays for the widest possible audience rather than exploring more interesting and off-the-beaten-path avenues for one of Marvel's more compelling characters.

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a popular and aggressive investigative reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area. His latest assignment tasks him with interviewing Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), a brilliant scientific mind and head of the Life Foundation. Drake is a believer in space travel, in discovering the untapped resources and potential the universe beyond Earth’s borders has to offer mankind. His latest mission into space ends in disaster when the ship crashes back to Earth. The ship was carrying several alien symbiotes, three of which are recovered, one of which remains on the loose. When Brock uses the interview as a front to confront Drake about rumors that his empire has been built on dead bodies and underhanded and unethical scientific methods, he is escorted from the premises, fired from his job, and his girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) breaks up with him. She, too has been fired from her job for failing to keep confidential material from him.

Months later, sulking in his unemployment, Brock is approached by one of Drake’s employees who reveals to him the truth behind the operation, that the poor and uneducated are being used in Brock’s laboratory research with no regard for their well-being. With no other direction to take his life, he risks what little he has left to infiltrate Drake’s operation. Brock learns that Drake’s ultimate plan is to cross humans with alien symbiotes to propel man’s ability to exist off planet, a planet that is dying from pollution and overpopulation. When one of the aliens inhabits Brock's body, he experiences radical changes: excess body heat, ravenous hunger, increased physical agility, and he hears a voice in his head that becomes ever more prominent in defining who he is. All of it eventually manifests into a hideous alien façade capable of frightening acts of body morphing and lethal attacks. As Brock comes to terms with the symbiote inside, Venom/Brock find themselves on the run from Drake's men and another symbiote more powerful than Venom.

Venom is not the first film about aliens inhabiting a human host, and several others have done it better, including The Thing and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. There is of course plenty of opportunity for interesting character analysis as Eddie falls into the clutches of the symbiotic relationship building inside of him. But rather than unearth the dark and sinister realities, the film instead aims to be as hip as possible, to voice Venom with attitude and task Tom Hardy with hamming up many of the responses to the fight within. Essentially, the film wants Venom to be Spider-Man rather than Venom. Its greatest influence seems to be Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3, not because Venom appears in that movie but because it's the most brash and playful of the three. Tom Hardy doesn't quite seem to know what to do with the part, seeming equally confused as the audience as he never really gets the journalist Eddie character off the ground and struggles to find the proper beat and cadence for inhabited Eddie. Rather than work hard to deal with the war raging inside, Hardy and the script gloss over the more complex components in favor of humor and action built around stock parts and a transparent story that becomes even more so as the film develops its tone and finds its voice.

Venom Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The digitally sourced Venom looks sharp and clear on Blu-ray, rising towards the format's pinnacle for clarity and definition, though a handful of softer corners appear throughout. The movie is otherwise crisp and nicely detailed, with firm skin textures, razor sharp facial hair, well defined environments (whether brightly lit convenience stores or lower light, blue and gray dominant lab interiors), and nicely complex clothes. Digital effects are nicely integrated as well, blending with characters and surroundings and never appearing too artificial. Colors are nicely defined, enjoying prominent punch and intensity across variously and brightly colored items in the aforementioned convenience store. Neon signs outside are more stably aglow away from the somewhat harsh fluorescent lighting inside. The again aforementioned steely blue/gray color schemes inside the labs hold firm with good depth and color reproduction accuracy. Black levels are generally deep with only a few examples of rising shades. Skin tones appear accurate. Noise is mild even in lower light and no other notable encode or source artifacts are readily apparent. The UHD does best the Blu-ray in terms of both color and detail, but Sony's 1080p offering is no slouch on its own terms and within the parameters of what the format can technically produce.

Venom Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For its Blu-ray release, Sony continues its practice of pairing the 1080p disc with a lesser soundtrack than its UHD counterpart. While the UHD features a Dolby Atmos soundtrack, Venom's Blu-ray includes a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 audio presentation. Despite the lack of additional rear and overhead channels, the track is very active and sonically fulfilling. The 5.1 channel audio is certainly more than capable of carrying the film, though of course the Atmos track included on the UHD would've been preferable. The botched reentry at film's start is met with prodigious surround envelopment, intense bass on crash, and plenty of haunting notes and crash site din to follow. As the film builds it sonic environment, it presents music with substantial width and prominent surround immersion. Musical flow is fluid and clarity is top-notch. Environmental ambience is handled with care with a sense of accurate immersion, particularly out on city streets but also in other locations like a restaurant or laboratory where small sounds of working machinery and other details build a critical atmosphere. There is terrific depth to most every prominent effect in the movie, such as slams on lab doors, action scenes in which the title character tosses would-be attackers about, and numerous crashes and rushes that are all presented with seamless surround envelopment, perfect sound fluidity around the stage, a few discrete effects, and prominent bass. Dialogue is always clear and well prioritized. Placement is firm in the center with some expansion and added depth as the inner Venom voice talks to Eddie Brock with a boomy diffusion.

Venom Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Venom's Blu-ray release contains a trivia track, deleted and extended scenes, a number of featurettes, and music videos. A DVD copy of the film and a Movies Anywhere digital copy code are included with purchase. The release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• Venom Mode (1080p, 1:52:08): Per the description on the disc: "When selecting this mode the feature will engage informative pop-ups throughout the film to provide insight on the movie's relationship to the comics, and to reveal hidden references that even a seasoned Venom-fan may have missed!" Rather than something like Retribution Mode from Equalizer 2, which featured cuts into the movie for commentary and behind-the-scenes footage, this is basically a glorified trivia track. White text appears on the screen within a gooey near-black Venom-like substance.
• Deleted & Extended Scenes (1080p): Inclides Ride to Hospital (1:23), Car Alarm (0:35), and San Quentin Extended (3:11).
• From Symbiote to Screen (1080p, 20:03): An interesting discussion about the character's popularity, place in comic history, changes in character origin from comic to screen, why the film remains grounded in Marvel mythology and storytelling structure, cast and performances, the character's hero/villain duality, Carnage's cameo in the film, and more.
• The Anti-Hero (1080p, 10:01): A closer look at how Eddie and Venom turn into reluctant heroes through the course of the story, grounded in the character's comic history, and independent of Spider-Man. It also looks at the production and its history.
• The Lethal Protector in Action (1080p, 9:14): A focused piece on the film's action scenes, fight choreography, and stunt work.
• Venom Vision (1080p, 7:02): A closer look at Ruben Fleischer's work as director.
• Designing Venom (1080p, 5:34): A quick exploration of the character's design for the film, grounded in the comics, which have altered his appearance over the years.
• Symbiote Secrets (1080p, 2:40): A quick exploration of a few of the easter eggs hidden in the film.
• Select Scenes Pre-Vis (1080p, 13:53 total runtime): Animated storyboards for several scenes. Included are Carlton Drake Lab Test, Escape from the Foundation, Eddie's Checkup, Eddie's Apartment Fight, Bike Chase, Tower Climb, Lobby Fight, and Dog Venom.
• Music Videos (1080p): Included are Venom by Eminem (4:56) and Sunflower by Post Malone, Swae Lee 'Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse' (2:48).
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse Sneak Peek (1080p, 3:34): A scene from the new animated film. Also tacked onto the end of the movie.
• Previews (1080p): Additional Sony titles.

Venom Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Venom is a little long and laborious (though 20 minutes of the listed runtime are comprised of credits, a mid-credits universe-building scene, and a preview for Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse). The film is well made otherwise, boasting incredibly impressive digital effects and good action scenes, but it falls flat as a character piece. Sony's Blu-ray is great all-around, but the UHD outclasses it visually and sonically. Worth a look.