I figured out what they were inspired by: Jackie Chan's "The Tuxedo".
No, really, it the bar scene just made it click for me, but thinking back, previous movies were kind of same. And being "same" is probably the main problem of the whole franchise: there is no progression. I kind of accepted that this is not the same Venom, as in comics and it's an even lighter version of the comics' "Lethal Protector", but should still remain a collection of gags based on loss of control over body and Venom keeping secrets?
To be fair there was some progress here, though. Because Venom were moving from point A to point B on the US map. But that's it. Knull's existence and the suggested danger from him could bring a more tangible risk to everything, but it did not really, story still felt very safe, as if they have not learnt on the toothless Carnage form previous movie. What's worse the "codex" thing was a really weak plot device, that did not make much sense. Although, I do not know, maybe it was present in the comics, too? I have not heard about it, at least.
It was nice to see some more symbiotes, but it did not looks like they were related to ones from comics, and their appearances were very brief, and arguably inconsequential. Furthermore, I am not sure that comics' version would work with lightning (due to implied high temperature), while the purple one seemed to be fine with it and was also gaining super-speed for whatever reason.
But maybe I missed something. I could, since i started fast-forwarding after the plane scene, and even then the travel with the family was too long and it felt like it did not bring much. Better than Kraven, but the joke just got too stale by now.
