After the Box Office success of the decidedly average first outing for Venom, the symbiotic anti-superhero returns for his second, pandemic-beating, outing in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, but sadly does little to build on the forgettably banal original, and simply limps on with the same predictable, play-by-numbers formula we’d expect.
Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock; the reporter infected with alien simbiote Venom; and spends the film reporting on, and chasing down serial killer, and similarly infected, bad guy Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson, War For The Planet Of The Apes). Cletus spends the film escaping death row, chasing after a lost love with her own power (played by No Time To Die‘s Naomie Harris), and doing little else other than deciding he’ll kill some more people, before Brock/Venom (the two minds inside the same body – with super strength etc. etc.) decides enough is enough, and calls upon his ex-girlfriend (Michelle Williams), her other half (Reid Scott), a detective with a ropey accent (Stephen Graham, Boiling Point), and basically everyone he’s ever met, to help destroy this new threat; Carnage.
Now given Venom is often portrayed as an unstoppable behemoth in the comics, and Carnage; the red symbiote born of a melding between Venom and Brock’s blood; is nothing short of super-Venom; a vicious unrelenting killer with non-of Venom’s moral qualms, it’s a true shame the red megadeath appears as nothing more than Venom-lite. Sure, Venom has the odd throwaway line where he decides to run away because Carnage is “a red one”, but as it never fully melds with Cletus, and we see it reeling in pain almost as must as we see it causing destruction, it’s a pathetic shell of it’s comic-book origins, and one that sadly never feels like a real threat.
Having said that, Venom: Let There Be Carnage does have it’s cool moments; there’s some real style in places, and the direction from Andy Serkis (War For The Planet Of The Apes) is about as strong as it could be given the lacklustre script, especially when the film takes a darker turn, and becomes more akin to a horror movie. When Cletus and Carnage escape from prison for example, it’s undeniably cool; sadly, what should be a sign of brilliant and terrifying things to come ends up being as good as it gets, because neither the film itself nor the villain reach their potential for greatness ever again.
Instead, we get a terrible plot, sprinkled with woefully unfunny comedy (including an unnecessarily lengthy scene where Venom attends a glow-stick party), and bland action which lacks any threat. Even the double-act of seeing Venom and Brock fighting (essentially Hardy fighting/arguing with himself, in public or at home), gets old really quickly, and makes you think it’s a shame to see an actor of Hardy’s calibre in such a poor role.
In fact, you can say the same for the entire cast; not only is Hardy fantastic in almost every other role he has portrayed, but the consistently excellent Woody Harrelson is basically reduced to playing a caricature bad guy with zero motivation or believability (even he can’t save Let There Be Carnage). Smaller parts are also filled with exceptional talent; including Academy-Award winner Michelle Williams, and the brilliant BAFTA-winning Stephen Graham, but they simply aren’t given the material to make anything of their characters; proving the issues with Venom: Let There Be Carnage don’t come down to poor acting, but a terrible script.
In short, the entire film is a bland, forgettable flop. Failing to build on the premise set-up in the first movie, and delivering none of the potential it held. Despite an impressive cast, decent direction, and a huge promise, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is nothing more than a skippable blip in the extended Spider-verse, and sadly does nothing to heighten interest in an upcoming third Venom movie.
