“Venom” is such a bizarre experience.

The latest Marvel comics adaptation from Sony centers around a character who on paper should be part of a darker, more adult-oriented audience. Instead, it’s a film that feels more like a buddy sit-com with some weird tonal shifts that just undermine everything happening on the screen. It never quite clicks, making “Venom” one of the weaker comic book films.

The set-up, which takes a large chunk of the film’s 112 minute run time, involves a television journalist named Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) who is investigating a powerful entrepreneur named Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed).

When he gets too close to what Drake is really doing with his company, Drake uses his power to bring Brock down – with the journalist losing everything, including his job and fiancee Anne (Michelle Williams).

Flash forward to six months later and down on his luck Brock is approached by one of Drake’s employees with more information about his lab work – which involves a symbiotic extraterrestrial named Venom who morphs with Brock.

At first the pair clash over who is in charge, but when other dangers arise, Venom and Brock’s partnership reaches an understanding that allows the duo to co-exist together.

The relationship between Venom and Brock is basically the problem with “Venom.” This should be more challenging relationship with Brock struggling with the inner demon that is capable of death and destruction on a whim. Instead director Ruben Fleischer goes for the same comedic tone that worked in his previous film “Zombieland.” It’s a tone that doesn’t fit the material, with a lot of ‘Ah shucks what will that crazy alien do next?’ moments that are too bizarre to be funny.

Perhaps “Venom” could have worked with a more dynamic antagonist for the duo, but Ahmed’s Drake is nothing but the stereotypical cooperate bad guy we have seen in endless movies in the genre.

Williams, whose talents far exceeds the material she is given here, at least seems to be having fun. Hardy also seems to be just rolling with it, but like Williams, the material doesn’t fit the talent.

The result is a comic book film that will find a hard time appealing to anyone outside of the genre’s fanbase. There is nothing transcendent or game-changing here. It’s just a pedestrian attempt at a franchise (with a tease at further chapters during one of the multiple end credit scenes) that is – at best – a step above the failed attempts at a “Fantastic Four” franchise.

Starring: Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams

Directed by: Ruben Fleischer

Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and for language

Playing at: Regal Bowling Green Stadium 12, Regal Greenwood Mall Stadium 10, Highland Cinemas (Glasgow)

Grade: C-