An entertainingly skittish performance by Tom Hardy keeps things lively, but Venom falls short of the bar raised by other Marvel fare, thanks to mediocre filmmaking and a refusal to push the boundaries.

When it comes to adapting Marvel’s anti-hero characters to the big screen, a crossroads has emerged: either honour the tone of the character and risk losing a younger demographic. Or, neuter that character in service of creating a more “accessible” product. Venom firmly belongs to the latter.

Based on the popular Marvel Comic character often associated with Spider-Man, Venom joins the likes of The Punisher and Elektra in the inability of its filmmakers to properly bring these characters to life. Indeed, this Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) directed film harkens back to a time when the term “Marvel superhero movie” was often met with a shudder. And with no input from Marvel Studios, this Sony Pictures produced and released product is the worst of its kind seen in some time.  

Venom stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who is fired from his job after ruffling the wrong kind of feathers in his attempted expose of bioengineering CEO Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), whose discovery of alien symbiotic lifeforms leads to illegal human experiments. One of the Symbiotes – known as Venom – infests and bonds with Brock, as an at first reluctant partnership turns into a deadly union.

It is Hardy’s portrayal of Brock which is the films strength. Charmingly skittish and even funny at key moments, Hardy brings a unique energy to the proceedings, propping up what is in many ways a generic VFX laden superhero movie that could – and should – have utilised that Keven Feige (Marvel Entertainment CEO) magic, just as Spider-Man: Homecoming did last year. The interplay between Hardy’s Brock, and his alien Symbiote virus turned alter ego, is quite fun. Yet the films inconsistent tone (swaying from superhero cartoon to one-man buddy comedy), along with some truly bad supporting turns (a miscast Michelle Williams the lowlight), results is a truly farcical example of what this genre of movie can do.

In the end it all falls on the shoulders of director Ruben Fleischer. Back in 2009, Zombieland made Fleischer a hot property. Since then the likes of 30 Minutes or Less and Gangster Squad has cooled down that temperature. Venom only succeeds in making Fleischer ice-cold, and the fans of this popular comic book character raving hot mad.