Venom

Sony's first attempt at creating their own cinematic universe inspired by the MCU but with only characters related to Spider-Man, Venom deals with the usual things that occur when Eddie Brock bonds with the alien symbiote and becomes the dark anti hero. Unlike previous versions wherein the suit first bonded with Peter Parker, Spider-Man doesn't make any appearances and so Brock and Venom don't have the exact same backstory that usually is adapted from the comics. This actually works since I feel the symbiote can work with any other Marvel hero and Eddie Brock can have trouble with his life even without Spider-Man. Tom Hardy portrays Eddie Brock and voices the Venom symbiote in a way that ensures both characters are very different, which is the strongest aspect in the film. With Ruben Fleischer on board as director, his over the top take can make the film fun to watch but also can be too much at certain points that makes it hard to take serious. Alongside Hardy is Michelle Williams as his girlfriend, Riz Ahmed as the head of a company and the main villain, and Jenny Slate as a scientist working on symbiotes who gets Hardy involved in the plot, and while they all play their roles well a lot of the time it doesn't fit the over the top nature of both the movie and Hardy's performance. The action scenes are fun and fast paced, while the effects are really good especially whenever Brock turns into Venom. Some of the explanations as to why some of the symbiotes don't work with certain people is not explained that well, the same with Venom's motivation to fight his own kind. Venom doesn't offer anything that new to the superhero genre and the script is all over the place, while the fight scene between Venom and Riot is hard to make out due to similar appearances. For a film that's meant to start a new cinematic universe it hits some of the right notes, such as the post credit scene introducing the future Carnage, but fails at other aspects such as showing more of this universe and what it can offer. Over all: 90%

2018 top list so far:
1. Won't You Be My Neighbor?/BlacKkKlansman (tie)

2. Incredibles 2

3. Avengers: Infinity War

4. Mission: Impossible - Fallout

5. Solo: A Star Wars Story

6. A Quiet Place
7. Deadpool 2

8. Black Panther
9. Ant-Man and the Wasp

10. Ready Player One

11. Sicario: Day of the Soldado

12. Ocean's 8

13. Isle of Dogs

14. Game Night

15. Venom

16. Thoroughbreds

17. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again

18. The Predator

19. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom