Venom 4/10 A lot of people seem to agree about what I'm going to say regarding this movie: Venom doesn’t really know what it wants to be. It struggles to decide if it should be a silly, action-packed film or a horror movie. Consequently, it tries to incorporate all those elements, but ultimately fails at each one. The attempts at humor are pretty weak, which is why they end up being funny – you're laughing *at* the writers, not with them. The action sequences were just okay. car chase: present motorcycle: present ridiculous (bad) CGI fight: present Sure, watching Tom Hardy ride a motorcycle across San Francisco is mildly entertaining, but it’s hardly real action. And then there's the horror; there are brief moments of promise scattered throughout this film. You catch glimpses of what it *could* have been, only for those ideas to vanish as quickly as they appear. Two scenes in particular stood out because of their wasted potential. After a lengthy buildup showing Venom entering a building (by running up the side), Eddie takes the elevator down. Instead of Eddie walking into a SWAT team, they should have had the team searching the entire building, crawling through the floors to find him. Then there could have been an *Alien*-style hunting sequence where Venom systematically eliminates the task force one by one, in proper horror fashion. The other obvious missed opportunity was with the creepy little girl who delivers RIOT to the Elon Musk stand-in. They could have paid homage to *The Shining*, or *The Exorcist*, or done a million different things, but instead she just has white pupils and a deep voice. Throughout the movie, there are constant disappointments because you can see what it's missing. Instead of the predictable romance and other tired tropes, they should have taken some risks with the film. Yes, the movie made over $800 million, but that was probably inevitable anyway. Venom is one of the most formidable characters in comic book history, and Tom Hardy is a talented actor. I would have preferred something like this: The symbiote pursues Eddie. The symbiote captures Eddie, and they become Venom. Venom starts causing chaos just because he can, hunting down SWAT teams etc. Venom goes after the Musk stand-in and kills him. Adding more horror elements would have made for a much better experience. I've always loved Venom, and this movie had so much potential, but it was all wasted. There’s nothing to make you want to watch it again. Nothing memorable. Just a forgettable film. It was amusing seeing Tom Hardy act like a scaredy-cat, but even he can’t save a poorly written script and an even worse movie.

Source on TMDB