Venom: Let The Be Carnage may not make the most sense as a “comic book” adaptation, but it’s leaning into absurdity makes for a better film this time around.
Rating: PG-13 (Disturbing Material|Action|Intense Sequences of Violence|Some Strong Language|Suggestive References)
Genre: Action, Fantasy, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Director: Andy Serkis
Producer: Avi Arad, Matthew Tolmach, Amy Pascal, Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy, Hutch Parker
Writer: Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy (story)
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 1, 2021 Wide
Runtime: 1h 37m
Tom Hardy is back as Eddie Brock in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Brock is the host body for the alien symbiote, Venom. In their second movie, the two must face off against the insane serial killer Cletus Kasady, who acquires a symbiote of his own – venoms “child”, Carnage.
I walked into this movie not really expecting much at all. I know I shouldn’t totally rely on comic-book knowledge when I see these movies but when I saw the first Venom (2018) movie it was pretty hard to separate comic history from what I was watching.
There were so many changes to the Venom character in the first movie I really didn’t like it that much. Since there was never a ‘Secret Wars’ film, the connection to Spider-Man was never there. Hell, there was no Spider-Man at all! Without the link to Spidey there’s no web-slinging and no Spider-sense. There were other issues I had with it, but I’m not going into all of that here.
That being said Venom 2 was so much better than the first. The comedic storyline between Eddie and Venom came across like the ‘Odd Couple’, except with this odd couple there’s a messy Oscar Madison and an even messier, and extremely violent, Oscar Madison. We see how much the two characters really hate each other, but as much as they interfere with each others’ life they truly need each other to function.
Woody Harrelson as Cletus and Naomie Harris as his lover (Frances Barrison aka Shriek) reminded me so much of his past role in Natural Born Killers. Just as Juliette Lewis served as the Mallory to Harrelson’s Mickey in the 1994 film, Harris’ Shriek brought the “crazy love” to Cletus in this film.
Hats off to Andy Serkis as director and Kelly Marcel returning as writer, and kudos to Tom Hardy since he had a bigger role in creating the story alongside Kelly Marcel in this film. If you weren’t crazy about the first film, chances are you will enjoy this one a bit more.
