Venom

A crusading reporter (Tom Hardy, acting moronic), through his own troublemaking stupidity, loses his job, his girlfriend (Michelle Williams) and his apartment, which makes him ripe for a takeover by a slimy alien “symbiote” imported from space by a sinister tycoon (Riz Ahmed) as part of his research into curing cancer. I swear I am not making this up. It’s writers Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg and Kelly Marcel “reimagining” the archvillain from Spider-Man as a sort of antihero along the lines of Deadpool. It’s a measure of the power of Marvel Comics when they think they can get away with an out-and-out stinker like this, but they’ve gone too far this time. The writing is terrible, the acting is worse (only Williams survives with any dignity) and the direction by Ruben Fleischer virtually nonexistent.