Two symbiotic alien lifeforms brought from a comet through a space probe to Earth escape. One keeps changing from body to body of humans and hiding there. The other one is studied in a lab run by CEO Drake, who experiments if it can merge with humans by locking it up with homeless people, who always die from the symbiosis. Investigating these criminal experiments, reporter Eddie Brock is accidentally infected with the symbiote, Venom, but somehow survives, and is able to either hide it inside his body or use its powers for help. When the other symbiote takes control over Drake, it wants to use a spaceship launch to bring the other symbiotes from the comet to attack Earth. However, Venom is able to cause and explosion on the rocket, killing the symbiote. Eddie makes up with his ex-girlfriend, Anne.
An adaptation of Marvel comic books, "Venom" is a standard fantasy with more routine than interesting moments, yet those interesting moments which are there stand out. "Venom" works the best in these scenes when it aligns itself with the director Ruben Fleischer's sense for outrageous humor, and they appear mostly in the middle of the film, when the protagonist Eddie (Tom Hardy) has surreal reactions to his symbiosis with the alien Venom in his body, some of which almost reach the levels of comedy. One is the restaurant sequence, where a demented Eddie tries to talk to Anne and her boyfriend at their table, but suddenly stretches out his hand, grabs a steak from a waiter, bites it, spits it out, and complains: "This is dead!" Eddie then feels hot, and so he walks into a water tank, and eats a lobster there. In another sequence, Eddie walks by a pedestrian (cameo by Stan Lee) and pets its dog, but Venom's voice tells him: "Wait, this looks delicious", reffering to the dog. The movie needed more of such sequences, since the story is rather lukewarm, with bland, banal dialogues, though with some better action and chase sequences. Michelle Williams was sadly underrused in her one-dimensional role as Anne. While not much of a point other than being an introduction to a film series, "Venom" is still a solid entertainment.
Grade:+
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