Story by Grant Dillard, Staff writer

“Venom” is the latest attempt from Sony Pictures at starting a standalone “Spider-Man” film series after the Sam Raimi trilogy of films starring Tobey Maguire, and the two “Amazing Spider-Man” films starring Andrew Garfield. This time around, due to Spider-Man himself being involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Sony’s strategy was to create its own cinematic universe of movies that features several supporting characters and villains of Spider-Man, only without Spider-Man. With “Venom,” the studios’ latest attempt at bringing the popular Spider-Man villain to the big screen since 2007 with “Spider-Man 3,” it looks like their new franchise isn’t off to a great start.

Eddie Brock is a journalist who has been tasked with interviewing Carlton Drake, the founder of a controversial company known as the Life Foundation. After being fired from his job due to asking confidential questions regarding dangerous experiments the Life Foundation does on humans, Brock’s reputation and life start to fall apart; including his relationship with his girlfriend, Anne Weying. Six months later after being coerced by a rogue Life Foundation employee named Dora Skirth, Brock decides to investigate further into what the corporation is doing. This results in Brock being possessed by the alien symbiote known as Venom.

It’s important to know that this film is in no way connected to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, despite the fact that Spider-Man, Venom’s nemesis, is now a part of said universe. This film exists in its own continuity, which can be seen as a good thing for those looking for a standalone film. This also serves as a huge weakness in terms of Venom’s character; one of the most important aspects of the character is his connection to Spider-Man.

In the comics, Brock and the symbiote bonded and developed a strong relationship over their shared hatred for Spider-Man; Brock wanting revenge against the web-slinger due to the hero inadvertently getting him fired from his job as a journalist, and the symbiote for Peter Parker rejecting the alien suit.  Even “Spider-Man 3,” with all the criticism that film gets about its portrayal of Venom, managed to get the connection right.

With all that said, as a standalone movie “Venom” works as well as it could have, given its narrative limitations. This is mainly due to how its main character is portrayed. Differing backstory aside, the film does a surprisingly good job at getting Venom right, at least in terms of the essentials. The way that Brock and the symbiote communicate and work off each other is very interesting to watch, specifically the way Brock reacts to what the symbiote tells him. Moments like these are entertaining and lead to a lot of comedy.

This leads to a problem though: a conflicting tone. The film awkwardly bounces between being a dark and relatively serious movie to a goofy comedy. When the symbiote first starts taking control, Brock ends up going through strange behaviors including eating large amounts of tater tots and going to a restaurant and getting in a tank full of lobsters.

All the credit in the world should go to Tom Hardy, who absolutely crushes it as Brock. Hardy is naturally likable and charming in the lead role, while also perfectly capturing the paranoia and fear of someone being controlled by an alien parasite. Even in the previously mentioned comedic scenes, he is very natural. Hopefully, if the character of Venom does make it into the MCU at some point in time, they keep Hardy in the role.

The rest of the cast, however, doesn’t have the same level of energy as Hardy. Riz Ahmed gives a decent performance as the main villain but all he seems to do onscreen aside from getting angry at his employees is give clichéd speeches about how mankind is on the brink of collapse and that symbiotes will save the Earth.  Weakest of all is Michelle Williams as Eddie’s ex-fiancé. Williams isn’t bad in terms of acting, but Weying just isn’t that interesting as a character. Her relationship with Brock isn’t the most engaging, which is a huge letdown.

The third act is where the film falls flat the most. The film’s story, while generic, keeps things relatively small-scale, mainly consisting of the Life Foundation hunting down Venom, which leads to him fighting them off. But then all of a sudden, a world-ending event occurs and of course, Venom has to stop it. This leads to an abysmal fight scene between Venom and another symbiote named Riot. The third act isn’t enough to ruin the film overall, but it does leave it ending on a whimper, rather than a bang.

“Venom” is undoubtedly an entertaining movie, but it lacks the quality of other superhero films that have come out this year like “Black Panther” or “Avengers: Infinity War.” As an adaptation of the Venom character and storyline, it’s disappointing and could have been so much better. But as a dumb action movie about a giant alien monster who fights people, it’s an adequate film. For those looking for the latter, go at matinee price; for anyone else who’s curious, wait for it to come to Redbox.