Venom Review: Oddly entertaining film

After a boring first half, Venom takes off after an alien organism named Venom takes over Tom Hardy's body, observes Namrata Thakker.

Venom, the first film in Sony's Marvel Universe, is not a bad watch thanks to its leading man.

Some have dubbed Ruben Fleischer's film the worst Marvel movie ever, which is why despite being a fan of the Marvel Universe, I was sceptical about Venom.

This Tom Hardy starrer is obviously not the best superhero or Marvel character film. The first half is boring and the story isn't that great as well. The action climax has been shot poorly and except for Hardy, none of the characters have much to do in the film.

But it is worthwhile to watch Venom for Tom Hardy who has delivered a fine performance as a journalist who loses his job, his girlfriend and looks grossly weird once the alien Symbiote takes over his body.

Eddie Brock (Hardy) is an investigative journalist who wants to expose Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), CEO of a scientific organisation called the Life Foundation.

Drake brings the alien parasite Symbiote to earth and conducts strange experiments to bond them with humans.

Drake believes that's the only way to save humanity from inevitable ecological destruction.

When some of those experiments go awry, Brock investigates the case and confronts Drake, but ends up losing his job and girlfriend (Michelle Williams), a lawyer with Drake's Life Foundation.

Up this point, Venom isn't engaging at all.

But the story takes off once a Symbiote named Venom bonds with Brock's body.

From here on, Venom is terrific.

Once the parasite bonds with his body, Brock gets superpowers he doesn't know what to do with. Brock has always been a loser until this happens and makes him a badass superhero.

Brock always wanting to do the right thing and Venom wanting to bite people's heads off to feed itself doesn't really make sense. But that's what works in Venom, a twisted, not so dark, yet oddly entertaining film.

In the climax, Brock and Venom take on Drake who is possessed by a Symbiote called Riot.

Since the scene is shot in the dark, it's hard to make out which one is Venom and which one is Riot. I thought the CGI could have been much better executed for this scene.

Michelle Williams as Anne Weying is decent. But an actress of her calibre should have been given a meatier role.

Riz Ahmed as the baddie isn't scary or spiteful. In fact, he doesn't seem like a villain until Riot takes over his body.

Overall, Venom's storyline falters every now and then and though the characters could have been better defined, Tom Hardy does his best to deliver.

Venom deserves a sequel and hopefully the producers will redeem themselves with that film.