Tom Hardy enters the skin of "venom", although the film lacks bite: NPR

Great power causes great irresponsibility. It's been 29 summers since Prince's "Batdance" announced the release of Tim Burton Batman, and longer than that since a spin-off cartoon screen featured an original song with lyrics explicitly describing the character of the title. Even Joss Whedon, a musical theater guy who did two Avengers movies, and re-written and re-shot a big portion of last year Justice League, has not been able to provide his three at-bats with what he really needs, spins-to-web, of all sizes.

So, thank God Venom, Zombieland The horror comedy of director Ruben Fleischer built around a villain of Spider-Man, last seen in Sam Raimi's film Spider-Man 3. Peter Parker – who, in the comics of the mid-80s (number of previous reboots), was the first human host of the ravenous alien symbiote – is not so much a name checker, though Venom – the CGI creature , and not the movie – still looks like a Spider-Man mylar balloon with dirty razor teeth and Gene Simmons tongue. Frankly, Venom & # 39;The disinterest in saying why, or exposing in general, is a selling point at this late stage of the Marvel film universe. Q: Is this version of Sony Pictures in association with Marvel part of the MCU? A: Shut up!

Whatever the case may be, just 99 minutes after the beginning of the film (although star Tom Hardy claimed that his 40 favorites were excised), we are treated with the end credits to the rumors of Eminem on this beloved character from Marvel:

Venom

(I have it) adrenaline in 'em (Venom)

Not knowing with them

Never go slow in 'em

Ready to take the momentum

Thinking it's time to go get them

They will not know what happened to them

(When they bite with the)

Venom

The film is only a prologue to that, pretty much. Hardy plays Eddie Brock, host of The Brock Report, a television magazine apparently backed by the media and covering the local news of San Francisco. He is part of Michael Moore's school. Basically, he only accuses the rich slimeballs of big crimes on their faces in front of the camera. Eddie's boss has a huge desk in the pyramid of Transamerica, but Eddie seems to sink into filth as a weekly refugee, is one of the least mysterious of the film. Eddie's fiancée, Anne (Michelle Williams, who works at a capacity of 15%), is a lawyer who represents technological brother-in-law Carlson Drake (Rice Ahmed), for whom Eddie is investigating …

(check the notes)

… conducting drug trials on homeless people. In the horror movie code, Eddie's torn body by the tar-colored smart space that Drake keeps in his secret lab could be read as a karmic rebate for Williams' email hacking in order to help him in his investigation – a sneaky gesture that makes Eddie at once and Anne shot.

Maybe the 25 percent of the film that, he claims, has been amputated, deals with Eddie's debt after Annie's reversal because in the movie she is in a relationship , with surgeon Reid Scott, which seems to be the next day. Anyway, Eddie is struggling to find a new job while oily tentacles are escaping from his body in response to even minor annoyances are the most entertaining part of the film, if only because Hardy is fully engaged, like no other actor. If this thing had been illuminated at the height of the 1990s by Venom's popularity as a comic character, she would certainly have starred in Jim Carrey. So we all ducked there.

Whatever it is: Venom starts talking to Eddie. In a self-tuned Cookie Monster voice, audible only to him. We have always thought that any extraterrestrial intelligence clever enough to try to conquer our world would be vast, cool and unsympathetic, but it turns out that Venom is not very different from the alien who played in the NBC sitcom of the 1980s. ALF: An invasive boor motivated mainly by his next snack. "We'll eat his head!" is one thing that Venom says more than once in Venom. He (?) Is also surprisingly sensitive – he bristles himself to be called parasite – and pragmatic. "Think of you as my ride," he says to Eddie, fluttering briefly outside his body so he can talk with his eyes, eyes, heart, heart, and heart. 39, man to indeterminate sex. We all know that this is heading towards a boring nighttime CGI smackdown followed by a tee-up for a sequel, but Venom is at its best mediocre in scenes where the stakes are the lowest.

What else? Jenny Slate, a scientist who is mentally aware of Drake's abuse of the San Francisco homeless population, contacts Eddie and gives him a business card identifying him with his specialty of astral microbial ecology. No matter what it means, I can tell you this: Eminem said it best.

I catch you like a parasite

And I've probably ruined your parents' life

And your childhood too

Because if I'm the music you grew up on

I'm responsible for you ****** fools

I'm the super bad Daddy and Mom were losing their marbles

Do you marvel at that? Eddie Brock is it you

And I'm the costume, so call me –

VENOM.