Posted by Man works on his abusive physical relationship with an alien.
Venom 2… erm… this movie is… ummm… Ok, I watched this movie over a week ago and have been putting off writing this review until now. I can’t put my finger on why. I don’t think it was because the movie was that bad. I also don’t think it’s because I’m getting bored of writing reviews. Or am I? I don’t know. Who am I? Either way, the point I’m trying to make is I don’t quite remember all details of this movie due to having slept 8 nights since seeing it. But we’ll make it up as we go along.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage picks up after the first movie. The alien symbiote and Eddie Brock (once again played by Tom Hardy) are working on the logistics of their co-existence while a new threat in Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) finds himself inheriting a fraction of Venom’s essence.
Read that back for a second. This isn’t a movie that’s supposed to be taken seriously. I think that’s where the first movie struggled – it didn’t know what tone it was going for. Luckily, this movie has decided to stick to the comedy and zaniness of Eddie and Venom’s relationship. And that pretty much summarises the highlights of this movie. Having Venom’s narration whilst Eddie is dealing with life is quite often hilarious.
The other improvement over the first movie is the special effects. This time you can mostly follow the action when the two symbiotes are fighting. I remember getting quite confused between them in the previous movie, no such problems here.
Ultimately, this is a by the numbers action hero flick. It’s big, it’s dumb, but providing your expectations are in check I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Just like Dune. Quick digression to talk about Dune for a second. It seems like I’m pretty alone in my take and review of that movie. Even though I said I had no desire to watch it again, I think I may have to, to see if I was too harsh on it. Perhaps I’ll take Mrs OddFather with me for a second opinion.
Back to Venom. It does seem the cast are enjoying themselves in this. Woody Harrelson plays Cletus as crazily as you would expect him to. It’s only towards the end of the movie you find out Cletus is actually a character shrouded in tragedy. The whole abusive parents thing probably could have been explored a bit more to give Cletus more depth. Instead he’s portrayed as a natural born killer throughout the movie. See what I did there?
The female characters also leave a lot to be desired. Similar to the previous instalment, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Eddie’s ex, is wasted. In fact, I think she may even have had less to do this time round than last time. I questioned the motives of Cletus’ girlfriend/wife, Frances Barrison (Naomie Harris) too. She seems as outright evil as Cletus, but then all of a sudden she decides that Carnage has gone too far. I mean, she’s a serial killer, married to a serial killer, but suddenly it’s gone too far. Why now?
In fact, I have lots of questions. Like, why did Carnage feel it had to kill Venom to exist? Why is being “the red one” such a bad thing? How did a piece of Venom attaching itself to Cletus actually work? And thus, how does this piece of Venom develop it’s own personality? Also, how does Frances obtain the powers she possesses.
So. Many. Questions. Maybe I’m just overthinking it, should switch my brain off, and just enjoy the movie.
A big spoiler for the post credit screen is coming up so skip to the verdict if you want to be surprised – although surely you should have seen the movie already if you were that afraid of having the movie spoiled. Here goes… Venom is in the MCU! Or, probably more likely, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is now in the Sony Spider-Verse. As Eddie/Venom sit in their hideout after the climax of this movie, they’re transported to a different universe, supposedly the MCU. Now, I don’t think we’ll find out where they actually are until Spider-Man: No Way Home is released, but my guess is this ends up being a new separate universe where Sony can build their own movie universe once they claim Spider-Man back from the MCU. Confused yet? Wait until the Multiverse explodes in upcoming MCU titles. I have to say, I would rather keep Spider-Man in the MCU. Kevin Feige has done a tremendous job in creating this shared universe and I feel Sony will end up messing up Spider-Man without his guidance.
Verdict
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a by the numbers superhero flick. Nothing special or amazing, just a competent movie. Dumb in parts, but the relationship between Eddie and Venom keeps this fun.