WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Sony's Venom, in theaters now.


For lack of a better term, Venom is a mess. As an introduction to Sony's so-called Spider-Verse, it’s disjointed, unwieldy and lacking in confidence. That’s never more evident than with the actors who, for the most part, seem to be phoning in their portrayals of stock characters. With the exception Tom Hardy, that is.

The film's star, who's also an executive producer, throws himself into the performance, making Eddie Brock into a fidgety and well-meaning dope who keeps breaking stuff, screaming and, generally, acts like a weirdo for much of the runtime. His bizarrely likable take on Eddie Brock is, far and away, the best part of Venom.

Have a Good Life

Eddie Brock in Venom

Eddie is usually depicted as a bit of a jerk, even before he merges with the alien symbiote. In the comics, he’s traditionally a glory hound who takes out his failings on others before slowly gaining some positive traits by becoming a (somewhat) heroic figure. In Marvel's Ultimate Universe, he was a handsy and aggressive dude bro. Even in other adaptations, like Spider-Man 3 and the animated The Spectacular Spider-Man, he’s portrayed as a monster even outside the symbiote.

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But in Venom, these unlikable aspects are smoothed over with a touch of sweetness. Eddie tries to be a cynic, but can’t stop himself from trying to help. He loses his job as a journalist not dueto his shoddy reporting but instead because he's an idiot who uses confidential information he stole to make an otherwise-unsubstantiated attack on a literal captain of industry. Because, to him, that was the right thing to do, therefore, it needed to be done. He brings problems onto himself, but always tries to dodge the ramifications. He gets his fiance fired because of his actions, and acts as if it's not his fault. He wastes all of his potential, and ends up losing his friends in the process.

Eddie doesn’t have an Aunt May or a Ned or an MJ. For most of the movie, the closest thing he has to a friend is the verbally abusive voice in his head. As the Venom symbiote so succinctly puts it, Eddie is a loser.

Eddie isn’t even an active player in his own story. Much of the agency in Venom is relegated to the symbiote pushing him forward, against his will. He’s literally dragged along on his own adventure. It doesn’t make for a good story or protagonist, but it turns Eddie into a strangely endearing character as he screams throughout his offbeat adventure. It all goes toward making someone who otherwise might be difficult to like much more relatable.

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The Strange Silliness of Venom

venom back attack

Hardy plays the character as a nutcase, a noticeable and loud idiot who should be trying harder to be stealthy. Instead of just taking the evidence of the Life Foundation’s actions to his former employer, he tries to break a friend out of the experiment, and then gets a symbiote for his troubles.

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When he first acquires his powers, Eddie accidentally ruins a patrol of mercenaries while attempting to escape. His bumbling, anti-heroic antics play well off the more brutal symbiote. There’s a moment where he ends up running through a fallen tree without breaking a sweat, and he looks thoroughly confused by the act. His befuddlement is almost playful, especially when Eddie attempts to apologize while using tendrils to throw people out a window.

Moments that should have been horrifying are played for laughs. During a scene in which Eddie follows Annie (Michelle Williams) to a restaurant, he ends up jumping into a lobster tank to cool down, and bites the head off a live lobster. He talks to Venom in public, leaving people staring at the fruitcake babbling to himself. There’s a natural and disarming charm to the performance that Hardy leans into, making him less a fearsome figure than a well-meaning doofus.

Bonkers Brock

One of the most striking elements of Hardy’s Eddie Brock is his empathy. He’s a man who may be strapped for cash, but still gives $20 to the homeless woman he knows down the street. His journalistic career is ruined by his refusal to ignore the deaths of people who the world might otherwise forget. He cares about other people, to a fault. He loses his friends, he terrifies everyone, but he can’t help himself from trying to do a good thing.

It's a stark contrast to the more muddled and common take on Venom. The rest of San Francisco sees Eddie Brock as a crazy person on the side of the street, worth avoiding as he talks to himself. But he’s a man driven by a love for other people and the world around him. It's something the Venom symbiote learns alongside him. He’s become a (very temperamental) protector of the people who will never appreciate him for it. Other people may want to avoid eye contact with him, but he remains a hero who just wants to do the right thing.

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For a movie that’s otherwise completely unsure of what it wants to be -- A straight forward super hero movie? A horror-based take on the concept? An over the top grim-and-gritty anti-hero story? -- Eddie Brock is strangely endearing and thought-out in his bizarre nature.

Hardy’s Brock is a loser, an idiot and a bit of jerk. But he also has a surprising core of decency to him and relatable sense of surprise. It’s only Hardy that keeps the momentum of the movie going, with his resigned worries turning into an almost manic sense of fun with the character. He's by far the best part of an otherwise-unremarkable entry in the superhero movie canon.


In theaters nationwide, director Ruben Fleischer’s Venom stars Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate,Woody Harrelson, Sope Aluko, Scott Deckert, Marcella Bragio and Michelle Lee.