Warning: Spoilers ahead
With the release of the third and final film in the “Venom” trilogy, we can finally compare each of the films. While the films in this trilogy weren’t well-received by critics, they have consistently garnered support from fans. The first film performed best of the three in the box-office. All three of these movies choose to focus on the relationship between Eddie and Venom, knowing that’s what fans loved about the first film.
The first film introduced viewers to our protagonists Eddie Brock and Venom. We are thrown into a dynamic that hadn’t been explored similarly in other projects. Marvel has its fair share of protagonists with a lack of control, a darker, more dangerous and less predictable side to them, most popularly with The Hulk. “Venom” stands away from other iterations of this trope because the seemingly scary Venom, is quickly revealed to be caring. Unlike Hulk and Banner, Venom and Eddie only need one movie to essentially resolve their differences and learn how to cooperate.
This movie does a great job of introducing these characters, showing their initial dynamic and then clearly showing the development in how they work together. I absolutely love the first film, despite poor reviews from critics because they went into it thinking it would be a superhero movie. In reality, it’s a buddy cop romance starring a sweaty garbage-eater and a pile of sludge. The film was original both in the portrayal of these characters and the avoidance of tropes. The best example is the dynamic between Dan and Eddie, which would typically be focused on jealousy and hatred, but instead there is care and genuineness between them. Dan helps Eddie multiple times throughout the film and expresses genuine concern. Eddie in turn shows him respect and gratitude.
The second film, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” still stood out as different from other superhero movies and handled the original characters well. Despite this, it was not nearly as good as the first, which is too good to beat. I was disappointed to see less of the dynamics I liked in the first movie, such as Dan and Eddie, who seemed to start falling into the trope they originally avoided. Along with that, they altered aspects of the relationship between Eddie and Venom that destroyed the balance present in the first movie where they were working with and against each other at the same time. I did like that the second movie explored their disagreements as part of a relationship rather than the common trope of an internal morality and control struggle. I liked Venom’s portrayal as constricted, unloved and underappreciated.
They didn’t get into any of Eddie’s backstory in the first movie, and they just barely touched on it in the second one. I quite like that they didn’t add any backstory through force, and I thought they did a good job including some hints of information in the second film where it fit.
The third movie fell flat. Perhaps I went into it with higher expectations than I should have, but I didn’t feel it was a satisfying ending to characters I love. There was a lack of subtlety and substance to this film that the final scene solidifies. They replaced a well-written, truly emotional response for Eddie to the death of his best friend with a cheesy montage of them hanging out over the three films set to “Memories” by Maroon 5. They also introduced us to Dr. Payne, in terms of introducing the person who will seemingly continue the franchise, she was decent, but her character itself wasn’t very strong. Her character was quite surface level, but we’ll have to see where they go from here. The villain, Knull, was also pretty bad. They opened with him explaining the plot of the movie and then that’s all we saw of him. The aliens doing the dirty work of trying to track Eddie and Venom weren’t that threatening either, seeing as they were only a risk if Venom was in his full form, which he annoyingly decides to transform into multiple times throughout the film. There were also other details overlooked such as a scene that could’ve been used to delve into the anti-hero aspects of Venom more, where they inadvertently leave a plane filled with people to crash and burn, and it’s never mentioned again. I do feel like it was a missed opportunity to explore this concept of Venom and Eddie trying to do good but being viewed as a villain, especially considering part of this film’s plot was them being chased by police. I also wish there was more of the Eddie and Venom dynamic, but this movie had a lot going on, so it didn’t feel like a focus.
There’s something about having the protagonist of a superhero movie be a complete disaster. It encapsulates the concept that anybody could be a hero. In fact, Eddie was a hero in his own right before he had any special abilities. He treated people with respect, he cared more about the truth and taking down bad people than keeping his job. At times he made mistakes, as does everyone, but it was clear that his heart was in the right place, and he wanted to do good. Even mid-fight, when he’s being unjustly attacked, he apologizes for Venom protecting him. He doesn’t like to see others hurt, good or bad. He’s a realistically good guy. The best part of the films is knowing that the only reason they exist is because Eddie Brock managed to prevent an alien invasion by making one fall in love with him, and honestly nobody would be better for that role than Tom Hardy.
Along with that we can remain impressed with all three films in which they managed to create Venom as a stand-alone character, independent from Spider-Man, though of course, we can hope that the three will meet in a movie at some point. Rather than making the crux of Eddie and Venoms relationship being their shared hatred of Spiderman, they share being losers, which I think is much more fun and interesting.
One thing that can be agreed upon is that Tom Hardy absolutely carried these movies and had amazing chemistry with himself. Despite hating on certain aspects of each of the films, they were all entertaining and fun movies that I would watch again. I’ll watch any movie with a good bromance, and with this franchise we got three.