Let's face the fact, Venom doesn't actually have the best track record for big screen outings. I guess we should be honest, he's only seen the glamour of Hollywood once. It didn't really work out. For whatever reason, we thought it was a good idea to take the character and have him make Peter Parker a disco-ing emo kid. Even worse, having Topher Grace play Eddie Brock. Yeah, we dont like to talk about Eric Foreman and aliens. Fast forward, eleven years later and we're back. Big question though, is it an improvement or plateau?

Venom tells the story of Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who loses everything. After a brief period of depression and job hunting, Brock gets roped into one more story that leads to a relationship with an alien parasite. Let me tell you something, Tom Hardy carries and delivers on this film. Hardy goes through an emotional spectrum of boldness, charisma, confusion and more. Always adapting beautifully to whatever the scene calls for. Though while, he is a strength for the film, does not mean those he shares the screen with are always.

Unfortunately, aside from one scene, Michelle Willaims feels mostly out of place. She takes away from screen time that could have been better spent with developing more essential characters. Her biggest crime to this movie could be the lack of chemistry between her and Hardy. Which is sad because in some of the film's opening moments they do play well off each other. The more scene time they share though the faster than chemistry fades.

While Williams does steal a bit of screen time, the one who suffers the most is actually Riz Ahmed. Ahmed is actually a decent antagonist, he's just not very well developed. Which is ashamed because given a bit from development, he could have gone down as a cinematic villain on par with Thanos.

The storytelling aspect of the script actually will be either a hit or miss for people. The story balances it's time wisely between building the mythology and the life foundation but also the Eddie Brock-Venom relationship as well. The two meet beautifully in the final act. That final act is visually beautiful and harkens back to the final battle of 2013's Man of Steel.

Overall, Venom is a dark, entertaining and fun ride. Tom Hardy leads the charge with charisma and boldness. It's a well balanced film that paces itself wisely building mythology and its lead. However, it fails to probably develop its antagonist and has some character chemistry issues. Venom is proves that given the platform a villainous character could indeed be a leading man.

FINAL SCORE: 3 /5

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