Venom

(M) ★★

Director: Ruben Fleischer.

Cast: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate.

The Hollywood smile.

Prior to the release of this film, there were fears Sony were merely attempting to flog the only Marvel horse in its stable.

They had failed to get their own Spider-man franchise to work (despite the best efforts of Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield) and reluctantly handed the live action future of the character to the MCU. But they still owned the rights to the "Spider-verse" characters, and with the announcement of a standalone Venom film, it looked like Sony were hellbent on wringing every last penny they could get out of that dominion.

So if that means making a "Spider-man" movie without Spider-man in it, so be it. Who needs Spider-man anyway when you've got Black Cat, Silver Sable, Morbius or a bunch of other characters non-nerds don't know about, right?

But Sony were adamant - no, we have a good script and a good take on the Venom character, so that's why we're making the movie. It's not a shameless money-making exercise to cash in on Marvel goodwill and the superhero movie phenomenon, no, not at all, why would you say such a thing?

The sad truth is that Venom feels like the shameless cash-in many feared it would be. It's not good enough to deserve its place in the superhero pantheon and does a disservice to a villain/anti-hero that would most likely be better off in an MCU film. It's oddly close to being really good, but comes off as ultimately half-arsed.

Venom is the story of Eddie Brock (Hardy), a loose cannon reporter who offends Elon Musk-like supervillain Carlton Drake (Ahmed) and somehow manages to lose his job and his fiancee in one fell swoop. Six months later, a chance to bring down Drake lands in Brock's lap but during an ill-fated break-in to Drake's lab, Brock ends up infected with an alien organism named Venom.

The first mistake Venom makes is in the words "six months later". The first 20 minutes of the film are largely redundant but not only do they waste our time, they also dig a hole that's hard to get out of. The tone of the film is set in that opening act, but it's not the right one - that comes after the 20-minute mark, where we start to get the dark-comedy hints that persist through the film, not some weird rom-com-meets-horror-meets-Bond-villain thing that the first act messily wades through.

The opening also inadvertently demonstrates a lack of chemistry between Williams and Hardy, which is surprising given the fact they're both great actors. It also paints Hardy's Brock as an annoying douche who doesn't know how being a journalist works. There's also a tendency throughout the film for characters to have no idea how real people actually interact.

Aside from the chemistry thing, these are script problems. While things improve somewhat after the opening, Venom never gets its tone right. There are a few laughs, and these come out of the blacker and bleaker moments, but it never fully commits to the darkness lurking on the edges. For a movie about a headchomping alien, Venom is strangely toothless and bloodless, giving the whole thing a watered-down vibe.

Nor does it nail down the whole anti-hero thing. Brock is initially annoying before becoming pitiful, which actually works better. The Venom-Brock relationship has its hiccups but is actually close to being great. The best thing Venom has going for it is Hardy, who is excellent. He throws everything into the performance and damn near saves the film.

But there are too many things working against him. The film devolves into a typically emotionless CG-heavy boss battle, and even the action sequences before that are nothing special, aside from some brief moments of cool.

Ahmed is a disappointing villain, there are some major plotholes, and whenever the film finally starts to feel like it's on the up, it undoes itself with either bad dialogue, idiotic plotting, or another tone-deaf diversion. There's also no heart or depth to the film, which would be tolerable if it was more entertaining.

The mid-credits sequence would have us believe a sequel is in the offering. That's not an enticing prospect at this stage.