Venom

It moves quickly and is fairly good-natured, but otherwise this flatly written, uninspired comic-book action movie feels more like a paycheck-driven business decision than an artistic inspiration. (Sony no longer holds the rights to the Spider-Man character, in whose universe the Venom character originated, so Venom could have been an attempt to cling to some kind of money-generating superhero franchise.) The movie boasts some interesting creature visual effects, but Hardy is the only actor who seems to be trying. And he feels miscast as a character who's part intrepid reporter and part comical buffoon; he has trouble with the jokes' timing.

The other characters are badly underwritten, especially Williams' Anne and Ahmed's soft-spoken, psychotic villain, Drake; they never feel like more than just plot placeholders. As for Venom, while he's a full-fledged villain in the comics (and, when last seen on-screen in Spider-Man 3), this movie takes several highly implausible logic turns to make him into a hero -- and to justify Eddie wanting to leave the intruder inside his body. The story is softened into a cheerful, good-guy romp rather than taking the character to its natural extremes and making it a flat-out scary monster movie. Instead, it feels like a bungled attempt to make a movie that's widely appealing -- as this Venom will appeal to very few.