When director Rueben Fleischer and Tom Hardy teamed up to bring Venom‘s brand new live-action adaptation to the big screen, the critical reception wasn’t the best. However, with the series’ second installment, it became clear that this vision of the lethal protector wasn’t a superhero movie but a romantic comedy.
Venom Is a Romantic Comedy
The entire premise of Venom in comics and other media is that the relationship between the host and the “parasite” is symbiotic. The Ssmbiote organism from another planet attaches itself to the host, and the two eventually become co-dependent, often in different ways. The symbiote fed off of and accentuated Peter Parker’s darker impulses, eventually leading the two to separate. You could say that their relationship didn’t work out, and the attributes of the symbiote would be better suited to the character of Eddie Brock, a disgraced journalist and tough guy with too much bravado.
Rueben Fleicher’s 2018 film skips all the backstory involving Spider-Man. Eddie and the symbiote’s hatred of the wall-crawler is non-existent going into this first film. Instead, Eddie becomes the first host to the symbiote, bringing an entirely different angle to their relationship that had never been shown before. There isn’t hatred that drives this iteration of the lethal protector. Instead, it’s their reliance on and affection for each other and the ones they care about that drives the film’s narrative. For those familiar with Venom’s gritty and dark origins, Venom 2018 sounds like a disservice to what makes Venom who he is.
However, the nature of this new relationship between Eddie and the symbiote helps to accentuate everything great about the character. The symbiotic relationship is personified in a way that is almost like a romantic comedy. When Eddie first becomes the host of the symbiote, it takes control of him in humorous ways that signify the dysfunctional relationship they are starting to develop. The film also reinforces themes of love and relationships with the inciting incident that sets off the film’s events: Eddie’s fiancée, Anne Weying, leaving him after he breaks her trust. Going behind her back and exploiting information from her job for a story, Eddie finds himself living alone without a partner.
Venom and Eddie Act Like a Couple
When Venom bonds with Eddie after his relationship with Anne ends, the timing makes the movie feel much more like it belongs in the romantic comedy genre. Venom is initially hostile toward Eddie, trying to use his life as a bargaining chip so his kind can take over the planet. Venom can also control Eddie’s body, which more than checks off the physical comedy trope expected of most comedies, romantic or not. The lobster tank scene from the first film more than speaks for itself. In all the chaos of Eddie and Venom learning to get along, there are occasional action sequences sprinkled throughout that help to keep the film in superhero territory as well.
By the end of the film, Venom decides that he wants to save the planet from a possible symbiote invasion solely due to the time he spends with Eddie. While this story beat is incredibly contrived, it’s hard not to see the romantic implications of such a gesture. I mean, betraying your whole planet because of the time you spent with one person? If that isn’t a sign of love and affection between two individuals, I don’t know what is. However, not every relationship is perfect, as audiences would learn with 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
Related: Who Is Knull in Venom: The Last Dance? Explained
The second film in the series, directed by Andy Serkis, would lean even more into the absurd romantic comedy tone of the first film. Nothing gives the romantic comedy vibes more than Venom trying to cheer Eddie up over his failed relationship with Anne by cooking him a hearty breakfast. The film is full of insinuations and double entendres. It’s the most evident in the film’s plot as Eddie and Venom, now living together, have a hilarious fallout.
The dialogue between the two (who are both portrayed by Hardy) comes across like a lovers’ spat. It ends with Venom leaving Eddie to try to make his own life. There’s even a sequence where Venom goes for a night out on the town but isn’t able to find anyone “his type.” This happens at the worst possible time, as Venom’s “offspring,” Carnage, bonds with serial killer Cletus Kasady. Cletus is looking to kill Eddie and take revenge for getting him sent to death row. With this new threat, Eddie and Venom get back together (figuratively and literally) to defeat Carnage. Eddie and Venom’s romantic comedy adventure in the second film is about how they realize how each is lost without the other.
Venom and Eddie’s Dysfunctional Relationship
The ending of Venom: Let There Be Carnage cements the fact that these films are romantic comedies more than anything else. After defeating the villain, Eddie and Venom are forced to go on the run together. While doing so, Eddie is able to fulfill a wish of Venom’s that he had stated at the beginning of the film: to sit on the beach and feel the sand on his toes. The film ends with the two sitting on the beach together, with the song “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Hot 8 Brass Band playing. It’s an incredibly romantic scene, which is kind of wild to think about when you realize one of the characters is black goo from outer space with very sharp teeth.
The intimate scene on the beach concludes with Venom saying that when you love someone, you accept them as they are, defects and all. Eddie realizes Venom is saying he loves him, and all he does is smile. The Venom films may not be the most comic-accurate in tone or aesthetic. However, you must credit it for going all in with the romantic comedy subgenre. While some superhero films tout different genres to make them stand out, like Captain America: The Winter Soldier being labeled a political thriller, the Venom films actually use their comic book backdrops in service of an unexpected genre of storytelling.
While some people may not like it, it’s hard to deny that the Venom films are romantic comedies. Still though, despite all the deviations from the source material, Venom uses the rom-com angle to examine the symbiotic relationship between symbiote and host uniquely, making these films commendable, at the very least. With Venom: The Last Dance teasing to be an emotional conclusion to the trilogy, this writer can only hope that the third film sees the rom-com tropes all the way through. I mean, Eddie and Venom have already kissed, so arguing against this idea is a moot point.
Venom: The Last Dance arrives in theaters on October 25, 2024.
Published: Sep 20, 2024 07:43 am