When this film was first announced I thought it seemed like a strange choice to do a standalone Venom movie, especially one with out the presence of Spider-Man. However, I had high hopes for it because of the inclusion of Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, and Jenny Slate; all of which I am fond of. Unfortunately the cast of actors could not prevent this movie from being a bland, sloggish film that will most likely be a low point in all of their careers.

One of my bigger problems with this story is that they failed to pin down what the tone of the movie was supposed to be. There were elements of romance, action, horror, and comedy strewn throughout and none of it was done particularly well. The comedy was exceptionally poor, being that actual jokes were replaced with someone just saying a curse word.

I have a few gripes about Venom that I won't talk at length about including: poor CGI that culminated with a dark, hard to see fight, flat chemistry between the performers, a typical "do bad things to do good things" villain, below average editing, and poor story structure.

But the worst element of the movie in my opinion is Eddie's character development. Eddie starts off being a certain way and never has to reconcile anything with his personality or change himself to become a better person. In the beginning he's idealistic and wants to help people, followed by a brief moment of not wanting to help people, and then being followed again by wanting to help people. He never has to face adversity and find out what he really stands for. He never has a moment where he has to reevaluate the consequences of his actions (albeit a quick scene in which he apologizes to Williams' character about something from the past). And lastly, he never has to make any sacrifices to protect what he loves or be a hero to the people.

Some things I did like about Venom: Eddie and Venom's dynamic was enjoyable, an exciting opening scene, and an excellent score by the always talented Ludwig Goransson.

Overall, Venom is a bland movie with some entertaining elements. It feels like it belongs in the mid 2000's rather than 2018. There isn't enough good film making and story in Venom to make it shine, but still manages to be marginally entertaining as an action blockbuster.