I recently celebrated a bachelor party in my hometown in the coolest way ever.

A few friends of mine got together and did the stuff we always used to do.  Our unbelievable day went like this:

We started out bouldering in the morning, went and ate too many tacos at Soccer Taco for lunch, played some tabletop games (Think Dungeons and Dragons, but nerdier), went to see a movie, and got really really drunk watching Netflix.  In my book, a day doesn’t get much better.

I want to talk about that movie.  Opening day (October 5) for Venom in theaters made for a high-psyche day.  We rolled in unsure of what to expect, but we’d been looking forward to it all day.  I had seen one teaser in a Facebook ad and nothing else, and in hindsight prefer it that way.  Also, let me take this moment to tell Rotten Tomato‘s critics to go eat a poo.  Venom was awesome.  The viewers liked it and that is all that counts.  Yes, he ate heads.  That was great, too.  If that disturbed you, then you have never read a Venom Comic.  Besides, who can say no to a face like this?

Before I go on, though, let me take a minute to address the issues I’ve seen in other reviews.  People say that the movie is flat, and Hardy is the one redeeming feature.  Maybe that’s true.  They said Riz Amed’s character amounted to a sociopathic Elon Musk.  so what? It was good.  The movie stars Venom, so I don’t see the problem.  Venom was good.

The beginning failed to grab me, to be honest.  It started out slow, focusing on the day-to-day of Eddie Brock.  I emotionally invest in him until about 10 minutes in, but after I got a handle on Tom Hardy‘s approach I loved it.  I won’t spoil it for you, but juxtaposing Hardy’s Venom to that of Spiderman 3 (Topher Grace)’s Venom gives you the same feeling as Edward Norton’ Bruce Banner versus Mark Ruffalo’s.  This article gives you a look into that Hulky transition, but I took the phrase “Refreshing” from it.

Venom, also voiced by Tom Hardy, hit it spot on.  I should clarify that “it” refers to what Plato would call the ideal Venom, not the Comicbook Character.  To restate that, the cinematic character didn’t capture every detail I had imagined from reading the comics, but who can claim that? Everyone experiences a medium with a modicum of difference and meaning is derived from a symbiosis of the author and audience (see what I did there?).  Hardy had the heart and soul of Venom and gave the antihero a slight flavor-change that spiced up the experience.

I’ll tell you what I liked about him:  He captured Venom’s alien superiority complex and worldview well, looking at humans like we might see horses or dogs.  The character had a deep personality, and we saw him (it?) experience elation, sadness, anger, frustration, and a wide variety of emotions that hinted at a moral character somewhere deep in there without ever overtly admitting it.  At a certain point, early on in their relationship, Brock makes a request and Venom indulges it, stating that he (Venom) is “not unreasonable.”  From the beginning of the story to the end, that makes for a great descriptor of the symbiote.

Don’t misunderstand, Venom is an anti-hero.  The movie never departs from that for a moment, and I think that stung certain critics who were going into a pg-13 Spider-Man spin-off looking for… well, Spider-Man.  They found something entirely different, got surprised by it, and labeled it a “total mess.”

On the other hand, I can see where die-hard Venom fans found some grief.  The cinema took several liberties with Venom’s backstory in the name of saving time and staying on point.  That would have upset a younger me, but I’m used to it by now.  Marvel declared a new universe for the Cinematic world (Earth-199999), and Venom exists in yet another universe of its own.  I don’t see any dilemma here.  Yes, the story is complex and impossible to fit into a single movie, but by the end, everything essential had been revealed and nobody paying attention was left scratching her head.

To wrap up, the story, as described above, was good in my opinion.  No surprises.

The fight scenes were fantastic.  The banter was hilarious.  The plot and conflict were solid.  The realism was comic.  The main character development was remarkable.  I say, “Well done!”

5 bananas for Venom.