Venom

Better than you think, probably, though not particularly profound or anything. What success lives here owes a lot to Tom Hardy, who does excellent work while teamed up with the titular CGI character. It really is pretty convincing that there are two characters at work in his scenes, even when he’s standing there by himself, and that’s something of note. And the action sequences are generally a hoot, so there’s entertainment there. Beyond that, the story seems to be a bit weird and off-kilter. A fairly lengthy diversion, from the start of the movie till about a third of the way through, really doesn’t add much to the tale; something more straightforward would have worked better. More welcome is the message--hardly original but worth repeating--about the potential villainy of certain among tody's tech moguls, a caution that should ring very true to viewers in this otherwise deeply fictional tale. I probably would be remiss if I recommended this flick for a download or anything like that—but if it shows up in your cable listings and you just feel like killing a couple of hours with simple popcorn entertainment…sure, sit back and relax. You may forget it, but you probably won’t regret it.