Venom (5 Stars)

When I go to see a Marvel film in the cinema I usually write a review comparing it with the comics on which it's based. Not this time. As was already clear to be from the trailer, this film is so far removed from the Venom we know in the Spider-Man comics that it's not worth trying to reconcile it with the comics. It's a completely different character who just happens to have the same name and appearance as Venom in the comic books.

Carlton Drake is the CEO of Life Foundation, a company that's exploring space in order to find new worlds for colonisation as a solution to the Earth's overpopulation. That's a noble goal. One of his spacecrafts picks up four alien creatures from a race of symbiotes. Drake sees the symbiotes as a key to mankind's evolutionary development necessary for space travel. The symbiotes need a human host to survive in Earth's atmosphere, but humans need the symbiotes to survive in space.

Eddie Brock is a television reporter in San Francisco. He loses his job after accusing Drake of wrongdoing in an interview, but that isn't the end of his interest in Life Corporation. He breaks into the company to find proof that homeless people are dying as a result of being used in experiments. A symbiote accidentally bonds with Eddie, giving him supernatural strength and agility.

In the comics Venom is a villain. The film portrays him as an anti-hero. He has an appetite for eating living humans, but this can be channelled by only eating men who deserve to die.

I was warned before going to see the film that it had received poor reviews. After watching it for myself I don't understand why. Of the ten members of the Stuttgart film group present this evening, nine of us loved it. This is a fun film with fast moving action. The humour is toned down, not as brash as the comedy in the official Marvel Cinematic Universe. Tom Hardy, always an excellent actor, plays the role perfectly. This is one of the best films of the year.