Venom (Dir Ruben Fleischer, 2h 20m)

Plot. Tone. Characterisation. So many faults, so little time. Ahem. With seemingly every critic in the business having knives of various sharpness primed for Venom, I decided to accidently an entire symbiote-hello-in order to cover a film that's as split as its protagonist, with a tone half in the overly dark superhero films of the early 2000s and half-being a decent horror-sci-fi movie, but never really twinning its split personality together in a cohesive way. Tom Hardy is the one good thing in this. Starring Tom Hard-yes, they know-as investigative journalist Eddie Brock, who eventually twins with alien symbiote Venom, in order to defeat a nefarious blatant and obvious riff on Elon Musk, Venom is a mess, but an an entertaining one.

Tom Hardy is, to be fair, the one outstanding thing in this, and his abilities, already shown in the critically shaky The Krays he really is very good at this acting thing, to play two characters at once shine through. As the mild-mannered Brock, an investigative journalist, who seems, at first to have a perfect life, complete with girlfriend and job, prying into the matters of the Life Foundation who are the clear and obvious villains from the get-go, starting with transporting four symbiotes to earth, and headed by Riz Ahmed doing his best Elon Musk impression, Brock is promptly fired, dumped and six months on lives in a rundown, crime ridden part of Los Angeles, complete with overly loud next door neighbours, hoodlums, and homeless friend.

However, when one of the scientists from Life promptly ask him for help, Brock finds himself infected with a creature called Venom, an extraterrestial symbiote who cannot live without a host who is the best thing about this movie, from Tom Hardy's silky, predatory tones, it did honestly take me by surprise when watchign the trailers to realise that Hardy voiced Venom, to his physicality and connection to Brock lending themselves well to excellently choreographed scenes in which Brock goes from mere puppet to partners with the creature. Their relationship, which, oddly but appropriately enough, borders on that of partners in a buddy cop movie, also grows, from Brock being afraid of the voice in his head, and horrifed at the creature that lurks within him, to being a grudging partner in Venom's schemes, to being, at the film's denoument, a perfectly balanced duo.

And this is undoubtedly where the film is strongest-there's an excellent bike chase where Venom's powers begin to be shown, leading to the reveal of the full suit, whilst elsewhere, when Venom and Brock are alone, there's an excellent and rather creepy feeling permeating the film, with the creature talking to Brock, the latter gorging on rotten food, in a rather Sampsa-esque prelude to Venom's appearance before throwing up. There's even a sense of a bromance between Brock and Venom towards the end of the film, with Venom remaining on Earth because he has grown fond of humans, through his experiences with Brock. If there is one thing that undermines this excellent double-act, it's Tom Hardy's bizarre-well, certainly in his top five oddest voice, which seems to wander through about three accents on its way to Hardy's mouth, unlike the smooth tones of Venom.

The rest of the film which does not contain just Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy being an eight foot monster is as uneven as the mismatched duo themselves. Politely put, tone in this film is like a doubles tennis match between the better parts of the darker 00s super hero outings, Catwoman, a PG-13 rated version of The Thing, but set in suburban Los Angeles, and the comedy from the less successful half of the MCU. Which it changes between. Constantly. And Tom Hardy is the ball. Sometimes the film plays up the comedy, in other section, particularly after Brock is fired and dumped, the film elicits sympathy, showing him as a tired, clearly ill drinker, and the tone seems to
change on a die depending what's going on.

It shifts, from scene to scene, from action movie to horror-comedy to satire of 00s super hero films, I mean, hell, it even does dealing with overly loud music from neighbour that before and after gaining powers scene straight out of Catwoman, before, finally, in the third act, it coaleses as a straight out superhero movie, complete with Stan Lee cameo, Marvel finale, and mid credits setup for a franchise.

Tom Hardy is the one consistently good actor in this is something I regretfully have to agree with. Riz Ahmed as genius philantropist Drake is a wellrounded villain at first, and the film even sneaks in a little warmth in his personality, but once the symbiotes are in the building, he turns into cackling obvious villain, finally merging with Venom's nemesis, Riot, and engaging in silly CGI fightfests-their final fight toward and then atop an imminently blasting off rocket is a messy, badly lit encounter, and almost impossible to follow at points.

As for Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), whilst she has two truly standout scenes, including one so timed to perfection and playing a role in rekindling her relationship with Brock, for much of the film she moves between not wanting to have anything to do with Brock, despite his slightly creepy appearance outside her house, and trying to rescue Brock from the creature together with her new fiance, a doctor,  before finally assisting him in defeating Drake, by becoming female ve-uh, spoilers.

The problem is, for all its attempts to create a more mature, more bloody, more violent answer tot he MCU, containing its darkest, most dangerous villains, a film that boldly claims we've had enough superheroes, Venom is an oddly bloodless, oddly neutered thing. Crawling into the multiplex. Like just another film. In the Autumn. Uh. Not only that but it's inconsistent, badly plotted, and for a film that seeks to set up an alternative to Marvel and Disney's domination, uses much of their playsheet. Yet, despite this, it's an entertaining, if utterly mismatched picture. Not unlike its hero, honestly. 

Rating: Recommended.