Ok but I have a small issue with everyone calling Eddie Brock a loser. Dude was a successful reporter with a mission, so good he could afford to go rogue, he was kind and well-liked and had and a great relationship with an awesome woman. Until he went too far and lost his job due to having his heart in the right place (unfair), and fucked up the relationship due to seriously failing his fiancee’s trust (fair).
But, I mean… that’s not a loser. That’s just a person making a couple mistakes and having a bad time.
And the bad time is worse than it ought to be because, um, clearly the man has some kind of depression.
Self-deprecation is a favourite dish around here but I hope that’s all it is, know what I mean?
I guess I have a slightly different read on pre-Venom, Successful Journalist Eddie. Yes, he’s nice to service workers and homeless people, seems to have a reasonably healthy relationship with his partner, and seems to genuinely care, in a very general way, about things like inequality and injustice. And that’s refreshing! But despite people telling us he’s the greatest investigative reporter ever, the main story we see him working on, investigating Carlton Drake, is laughably terrible journalism. But I think that’s a great character choice, and I’m gonna explain why.
It’s like, oh hey, let’s start out by stealing some confidential legal documents from my girlfriendwho works at a law firm with the worst document security in history but whatever without her knowledge or consent. That can’t possibly go wrong in any way! These documents are from a case in progress at the moment, so they’re accusations that haven’t been proven yet, and would never hold up on their own as the receipts for a solid investigative story. But yes, let’s bring them up with a rich, powerful dude you have been explicitly told can ruin your life and the lives of those around you for sport. And let’s be sure to mention very specific details of the legal case so that Fake Elon Musk will definitely know you’re referencing a confidential document that came from his law firm, which he can very easily figure out your girlfriend works for. That’s not being a crusader for justice; that’s being a dumbass.
To me, these are the actions of someone very unfamiliar with the concept of consequences. They’re the actions of someone who, regardless of whether they genuinely care about the issues they’re reporting on, has gotten used to being treated like a hotshot and has gotten sloppy. They’re the actions of someone who’s gotten used to assuming he can talk his way out of facing consequences for anything he does. And then, suddenly, that doesn’t work, and it really fucks him up.
If Eddie has one recurring problem over the course of the first act, it’s his own impulsiveness. It’s like…no dude, resist the temptation to open that confidential work email that pops up on your partner’s computer. No dude…don’t accuse a rich guy of some stuff you can’t prove yet just because you hate his guts. His editor is very clearly like “please don’t do the thing.” But he can’t resist doing the thing. That’s why when Dr. Skirth shoves Eddie into the lab and says “don’t touch anything,” we already know he’s doomed.
But then you pair this character with an even more impulsive ball of alien goo, and suddenly he has to…sort of be the one with self-control once in a while? No, we can’t eat cops. No, we can’t subsist solely on tater tots and chocolate. And Venom, for its part, is like “dude maybe apologize to your ex for betraying her trust and fucking up her life.” And somehow they sort of…grudgingly snark each other into being slightly more responsible versions of themselves. Which is honestly a way more relatable relationship dynamic than plenty of mainstream rom-coms have.
i just cant get over the lobster scene. like his friends are actively begging him, do not get into the lobster tank. please eddie. tom hardy you were in mad max fury road dont do this. and tom hardy looks at his friend like “i know i shouldnt do this. i shouldnt be getting into this lobster tank but i’m going to anyway. i’m already mostly inside. cant stop now. i’m sorry i dont want to be doing this either there’s just no other choice for me.” and then he takes a bg bite out of a live lobster that’s still in the shell and everything.
tom hardy doesn’t actually know he’s being possessed by an alien yet in the story. he’s just resigned himself to whatever fucking meltdown he seems to be having. he doesn’t even seem particularly surprised that things have gone this way for him. like ten minutes later he finds out his heart stopped working and hes just like “you asshole” and he throws his alien parasite against the wall like a water balloon. and then he just leaves and is immediately kidnapped. what a fucking wild ride tom hardy is on.
tom hardy’s actual superpower is being the exact same level of dysfunctional no matter what is happening in his life. so when everything’s going ok for him he self-destructs spectacularly, but when literally everything that can happen to a human being happens to him, he does, like, unrealistically well. climbing into a lobster tank and eating a live animal with large claws just like… “well, this is what’s happening to me today. i’m so sorry you have to watch this, man. anyway here goes, i’m going to bite into a living creature with my human mouth and then LOSE CONSCIOUSNESS”
this movie’s fucking killing me from the inside.
IT WASNT EVEN IN THE SCRIPT TOM HARDY IS JUST A FUCKING GENUINE MADMAN
