Sony may have finally agreed that the MCU can use Spider-man after failing to start up their Amazing Spider-man film series, but that doesn't mean that they can't keep milking their biggest cash cow in every way they can. Thus we get Venom, one of Spider-man's biggest enemies getting a new origin without Spider-man and a film franchise of his own. The end result is a strange mixture of dullness, weirdness and a few blushes of genuine fun scattered throughout.

Set in San Francisco, the film stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a journalist who is going after a man named Carlton (Riz Ahmed), a multi-billion dollar entrepreneur who is in on the verge of many breakthrough discoveries and is involved with several deaths. Whilst investigating one of his facilities, Eddie comes in to contact with one of the symbiotes that were brought to earth by one of Carlton's deep space discoveries. This symbiote then attaches itself to Eddie and creates Eddie's new personality called Venom.

Probably the biggest disappointment for anyone who's a fan of the comics will be that they never showed how the symbiote corrupts its host through its power. Even Spider-man 3, in spite of having one of the worst dance sequences put to film, still showed how the symbiote blended with Peter and was able to corrupt anyone it came into contact with. But in this film Venom and Brock live mostly in harmony, with Venom never really trying to take over and never actually doing anything evil either.

Venom does still try to engage in a few horror elements, with the overall plot of the film resembling a classic monster movie formula and Venom's gothic design feeling like it's been ripped right from the pages of the comics. However, this does often lead to the film being tonally confused, with something that should be horrifying like Venom taking over another character and making them kill other humans for the first time is played up for laughs.

Despite several moments clearly being cut out of the film, mostly as a result of Sony cutting out several darker moments to avoid an R rating, Venom does have a few creative action sequences earlier in the film. They take full advantage of Venom's powers, morphing and extending his arms in to various weapons. Unfortunately the actions sequences do seem to get worse as the film goes on, with a final battle between two symbiotes which ends up being the kind of computer generated mess that you would expect to see in a Transformers movie.

Though the main driving force that gives this franchise some potential is Tom Hardy. Whilst he doesn't get the opportunity to show himself being slowly corrupted by the symbiote, it is great to see Hardy get a chance to stretch his comedic muscles, arguing with a character than nobody else can see like a psychotic version of Will Ferrell from Stranger than Fiction.

Unfortunately outside of Venom there's not much for the supporting cast to work with. The villain played by Riz Ahmed feels just like any other crazed entrepreneur and whose motivations are never made clear. Also Eddie's ex-girlfriend is played by Michelle Williams, who does have some good chemistry with Tom Hardy but also has so little to do in the film that her role feels pointless.

Overall, it's not the best set up for a franchise (which like every other superhero film already has an after credits scene already confirming a future sequel). There are a few things to work with through the fun dynamic between Eddie and Venom and the creative designs, but hopefully a future sequel will be able to develop Venom's character more effectively.