In this marvel-less thriller, journalist Eddie Brock attempts to expose founder of the Life Foundation, Carlton Drake, for his notorious experiments which have endangered many lives. While investigating one of Drake’s new experiments, Eddie’s body merges with the alien Venom, leaving him with superhuman strength and power. Eddie struggles to control his new found abilities while also trying to fix his broken life.

My expectations were not beat, as I walked into the theater thinking this would be a mediocre movie at best. However, Tom Hardy’s performance was definitely great, arguably the best thing about the movie as he charismatically portrayed Eddie Brock, the movies protagonist, and brought him to life. Don’t get me wrong, the movie had some amazing moments that I thoroughly enjoyed it, such as the movie’s motorcycle chase scenes and Tom Hardy’s comedic jargon.

Many comic book fans are comparing this to the 2007 hit, “Spider-man 3.” The third out of the original Spider-Man trilogy, and arguably everyone’s least favorite movie, was still prefered over “Venom” by some fans. However it is hard to compare, as one has the masked hero, while the other does not. A hero is only as good as its villian and vice versa. I understand why Spider-man was absent in the film, as Sony and Marvel are like bitter exes. Sony has Marvel’s old sweatshirt and refuses to give it back. Marvel Entertainment sold the big-screen rights of Spider-man to a sony pictures executive after the company emerged from bankruptcy in 1998.

I saw this movie from the very front row, but this film’s flaws could be scene from any angle. The movie villain was standard for Marvel’s reputation- one dimensional and easily dispensable with a flimsy motive. Venom played more of a comedic character than ominous villain with goofy commentary. My biggest problem stemmed from the same issue that plagued “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”- the trailer gave away the entire movie within three minutes. Any scene that would have amazed me had already been scene in the trailer. The movie’s plot was cliche, but I chalk this up to origin story simplicities then bad writing.

The movie should have also gone with its original R rating for a character as vicious as Venom. The director, Ruben Fleischer, recently brought up a few plot holes in the story, one including a major time jump with seemingly no explanation. When talking to Gamespot, Fleischer said, “That’s one of our few, hopefully, few logic bumps. But we had to have a passage of time in order to show Eddie’s downfall, and that was the one thing that doesn’t entirely track.”

However, the movie is worth a shot, and I highly recommend seeing it. It plays as a decent action movie and simple comic book adaptation for people who aren’t strong followers of the superhero trend.