VENOM (2018)

Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock

VENOM (2018). Director: Ruben Fleischer. 

Reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) winds up fired from his job when he goes up against billionaire scientist Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who sends men into space to look for resources and finds some weird aliens called Symbiotes. Drake wants to merge the aliens with humans and uses homeless people, most of whom don't survive, for experimentation. Eddie's fiancee, Annie (Michelle Williams), loses her job, too, and cancels their engagement. 

Eddie confronted by Venom

Eddie eventually winds up bonded with one of these creatures himself. The alien talks to him, calls himself "Venom" and has to be talked out of biting people's head's off when he's hungry, which doesn't always work. Venom knows that a group of his kind plan to take over Earth, but he likes it here, and tries to help Eddie prevent Drake -- who has bonded with an alien known as "Riot" -- from taking off into space. 

Venom on thee rampage

Venom is actually a character that was introduced in the Spider-Man comic books. Peter Parker put on a black costume he found during the "Secret Wars" and only later discovered that it was alive. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four helped him separate from the symbiote, which later merged with Eddie Brock (and later with the serial killer Cletus Kasady, as well as with Parker's friend, "Flash" Thompson.) Played by an appealingly grubby Tom Hardy, Brock is more of a sympathetic figure in this movie than he was in the comics. 

Riz Ahmed

Although Venom begins quite well -- and the FX work throughout is quite good -- the movie eventually becomes a mess, getting sillier and more ridiculous as it goes along. Venom might have worked as an outre horror film, but the PG rating works against it, and this doesn't really jell as a part-time black comedy. The movie has no real climax, because there has to be room for a sequel. There are a couple of exciting moments, but the battle between Venom and Riot kind of falls flat. 

Verdict: Not one of the better Marvel movies. **.