Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

 

Hello Venom, you fan favourite, you. 

The first Venom-film was okay. It was enjoyable, but nothing truly special. If this has to do with that uneasy truce between Sony and Marvel: who can tell? Tom Hardy is probably the best reason to watch it anyway.

Guess what? That hasn't changed one iota for this sequel.

Eddie Brock and Venom have this uneasy understanding and they constantly bicker like a married couple, which they sort of are. Brock relaunches his career by interviewing a notorious serial killer by the name of Cletus Kasady and Brock even manages to find out where some of Kasady's victims are buried. 

Well okay, actually it's Venom who figures this out.

But when Cletus bites Brock during a face-to-face in prison before Kasady's termination, things get a little wacky as part of the Venom symbiote seeps into Kasady's system, eventually turning him into Carnage: a much more violent and brutal version of Venom, as it is enhanced by Kasady's unhinged mental state. But first, Cletus is trying to locate the girl he always loved, who is actually Shriek, a mutant who has the ability to produce ear-splitting sounds. At the same time, Brock and Eddie have a falling out and it starts to get complicated. 

It might all sound pretty awesome, but the best parts are when Eddie and Venom are having discussions. Those parts are funny, mainly because Tom Hardy gives it his all in the most unhinged way possible. Woody Harrelson also works well as Cletus/Carnage, but most of the other characters are absolutely wasted. Naomi Harris tries to bring her best as Shriek, but she isn't in this film a whole lot and her character feels like an afterthought. A shame really, as this could have been explored more thoroughly. Somewhere, there's the idea that this film could have had more character development, but as it clocks in at a sharp 90 minutes, it's seems as though the studio excised some material that might have made all this more fleshed out, more coherent. Now we're just working towards the big fight in the final act and everything else has that creeping suspicion of being rushed. 

So what's the final product? A film that is basically okay, but nothing special or remarkable. It just 'is'. If you liked the original, you'll probably enjoy this one, but it still feels a bit like a missed opportunity, except when they play up to the comedic angle. This one, you'll really have to judge for yourself.