By: Keaton Marcus

The Sony produced attempt at adapting the popular, dark anti-hero comics "Venom" is disappointing, despite Tom Hardy's heroic efforts--one problem straight out of the gate is that Marvel did not take full control of the film--and the result stings. Otherwise, on a more positive side, there are some interesting plot points, and a talented cast that mildly helps the film dig itself out of a hole it was making since the start--also the origin story is technically very accurate to the comics, which is likely to please fans. However, the script, directing and storytelling is a mess, a total, unforgivable mess that pounds this watered-down PG-13 rated retelling of an R-rated comics strip.

There are lots of things that went wrong with "Venom". First off, the film was very clumsily directed by Ruben Fleischer (the filmmaker who created the hysterical phenomenon "Zombieland") who was anticipated to make the film full of gore, and swearing--considering his previous career--instead, he delivers a scattershot of good things lost in the quagmire of some many more negative things. This mess of a film was supposed to be a funny, more "Deadpool" like version of Marvel-produced "Logan" which was a compelling origin story not afraid to go for the R-rating. While the film is fun to watch at points, and there is a decent amount of laughs, the filmmakers never go bold enough to make it stand out from--well Ang Lee's "Hulk" movie. Another truly embarrassing piece of criticism is the lack of effort put into the script by a monkey-like outing from writers Jeff Pinker, Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel who create the basis of the film like corporate lackeys--and also manage to pummel the great amount of work put into Hardy's actually solid performance as the titular comics character.

The storyline is just really funny--and not in an intentional way. "Venom" sets up the film of when a down-on-his-luck journalist/reporter Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy) loses his job and fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams)--soon after Eddie is infected with an alien symbiote called Venom; and they appear to be the only hope to stop Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) who are taking homeless people--and yes I mean homeless people to test their compatibility with the symbiotes found on a crashed ship. It's ridiculous--and if you are the type of person who focuses on the loud orgy of sound produced in action films, that slice of the audience may be fine with watching "Venom", but the majority who likes their ears how they are, the people watching will think of the film as a bad excuse for making a mediocre sci-fi drivel.

The cast is--for the most part massively overqualified for such a muddled, below-average superhero tale. Tom Hardy gave one of his best performances in 2015's reboot "Mad Max: Fury Road" as the title character--providing more to the already gritty atmosphere of the film. In "Venom", while the film itself struggles, I still enjoy Hardy's bizarre, and nevertheless interesting antics--and undeniably funny banter with the digitalized creature. There are welcome laughs in their relationship--and Fleischer is clearly trying to add some bromance to the anti-hero themed pic, which at times does actually work--but is a little uncomfortable, and I would still like to see more charm between the two titular roles. The leading man's performance in general, however, is the opposite from boring--despite the embarrassing American accent, the actor is pushing through with the entire film.

Even more so, Fleischer also decided to cast very talented actress Michelle Williams to play Anne, Eddie Brock's former fiancee--this is already such a sub-par role, and Williams gets almost no amount of screen time--and nothing in particular to do than be the generic ex-wife who complains too much. Despite some effort in emotional grounding--the script is also--really, just terrible, dumping the actress. And you won't believe what the mediocre comics adaptation does to brilliant actor Riz Ahmed (known for "Nightcrawler")--the actor plays an iconic villain in the comics, known as Carlton Drake--the multi-billionaire owner of Life Corporations. His character development is dull, and his actually interesting origins are put to waste in "Venom". Then there is the massive amount of shallow, meaningless writing to go with the distinct lack of effort put into the performance--clearly, despite Sony paying the actor some cash, Ahmed knew the film would be a mediocre dud.

The action sequences--occasionally impressive, but generally repetitive, and the anticipated special effects flash are strictly bottom shelf--especially since they spent a potential 110 million dollars on a film called "Venom"--that may be the most devastating problem of the movie. There is one impressive climax sequence--and that is the "final battle" between Eddie Brock/Venom and Carlton Drake/Riot which takes place on a spaceship--the direction for that particular scene is spectacular--if only the entire span of the film could be even close to similar. The new, more muscular look for the title character is appreciated, and more accurate to the comics--especially considering the character's first appearance in "Spider-Man 3", played by Topher Grace--was a more skinny build affair. However the digitalized slop constantly looks fake, well, it's nice to know that all the money spent was mostly put to waste.

The final verdict is: "Venom" provides a solid outing for Tom Hardy as the titular character--and has enough quips to spare, but this anti-hero comics adaptation is a loud mess that suffers from a chokingly bad screenplay...$KIP IT

FILM REVIEW “VENOM”

Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy) in Venom — Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy) in *Venom*

Venom kicked off its Box Office with a three-day of 80.2M from 4,250 theaters; in its sophomore frame the film dipped 56% to a second outing topping 35M. Currently the film has scored over 213M domestically and 855M worldwide.

Genre: Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi

Age Rating: 13+

Lemonradar: 45/100 "sour"