Venom isn't quite bad, but it's not exactly good either. It's noncommittally mediocre and, as a result, forgettable; He's just another bit of secondary Marvel IP who scowls and growls, and never shows us why he should be headlining his own movie
Venom is a mess, but wow, is it ever a fun, fascinating mess / bizarre but charming; amazingly, for all of the wild weirdness and wackadoo mess, this character is, shockingly, one we'd be happy to spend more time with, thanks to Tom Hardy
this radically different approach will surely be jarring to some, but the fact that this movie could never exist in the same world as "Captain America: Civil War" despite hailing from the same brand of comics is part of its charm
next to the much more visually and narratively elaborate entertainments that make up the Marvel Cinematic Universe -- or even compared with other snarky anti-superhero movies like "Deadpool" -- "Venom" feels like pretty weak poison