VENOM

Adding to the list of superhero films released this year, Columbia Pictures brings us this spin-off film of the Spider-Man anti-hero, Venom.

In this story, reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is disgraced when he verbally attacks the Life Foundation and its CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who Eddie is certain is conducting illegal experiments. In actuality, the Life Foundation has uncovered a group of alien symbiotes and seek to join them with human test subjects.

Determined to prove he’s right, Eddie breaks into the Life Foundation’s labs when he gets infected by one of the alien symbiotes.

Now granted with superhuman abilities and a violent alter-ego known as Venom, Eddie must run from the Life Foundation, who seek to use his bondage with the symbiote for their own sinister purposes.

There were certainly ups and downs to this film. Its beginning is quite slow and the villain’s goals are also really unclear for a big chunk of the movie and not in a way that’s intriguing.

Michelle Williams’ character as Eddie’s girlfriend was also completely superfluous.

She serves nothing to the plot or the other characters, so, ergo, doesn’t need to be there.

Thankfully, Tom Hardy does a decent job as both Eddie and Venom. Their relationship is what really ends up carrying the movie. Venom especially steals the show with his surprisingly entertaining one-liners and awesome fight scenes.

Overall, this isn’t the greatest superhero you’ll see. There are some cool moments here and there and Venom himself does at least make the film worth the price of admission. However, the rocky first act and the somewhat patchy story cannot be ignored.

If you’re interested in Venom, then there’s no harm in going to see it. Just don’t expect to be too wowed.