Venom: Let there be Carnage

 
Released: October 15th 2021

Directed by: Andy Serkis

Cast: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Harris, Michelle Williams, Stephen Graham

Sigh. I thought Venom 1 was enough to make me depressed ( as I'm sure I'll talk about one day ), so why I even thought Venom 2 would be any different is a mystery. Perhaps an Andy Serkis directorial feature, perhaps a cooler and more recognizable villain, or perhaps even vague hope. Alas did it make much difference ? No. No it didn't. Let there be Carnage is marginally better than the first, and I mean marginally. It's a shame really, because I did put a lot of hope in Serkis to do a better job, but watching this film... Its and absolute mess. From the tone to the story and even the characters its hard to imagine how it could go so wrong. 

The start of the film doesn't set it off on a great path. A very rushed origin sequence for the main villains before we are straight into the nonsense, with such a confused montage which funnily enough carries out through the entire film. Staying with the villains - again just such a disappointment. Naomi Harris is completely wasted as the crazy love interest, given very little to do other than be there and be annoying. But nothing compares to annoying like Woody Harrelson. Dearie me. His presence isn't just distracting, its downright unsettling, in a bad way. apart from just being crazy, to no avail, he just sort of does things, but not even in an interesting way, and has about as much character development as Tom Hardy's TV. Nothing compares to wasted however other than Carnage, who is just sort of there. Not interesting, not utilized, just present, which is just a bit naff really.

Now I will admit, Carnage does look good in this ( minus a dodgy looking prison scene ), Venom however, does not. The CGI is not only worse than the last but somehow worse than Spiderman 3, and the character himself seems to be stuck in a different genre. From very questionable dialogue to awful humor, the buddy cop vibe is stuck in a low level horror movie, turning the whole thing into a tonal mess. And while it did make me laugh at some moments, unlike the first, there is no discernable story which somehow still ends up with two vague liquid-y things punching each other !

At the end of the day, I shouldn't be surprised. It's another sad example of basic money making through little story and a lot of " wow look Venom, isn't that cool ? ", with no clear direction and very little on the part of thinking. While not worse than the first it certainly isn't good, and makes me worries than when Venom 3 comes out it still won't learn its lesson, but will still get way too much attention.

My rating: 2/10

Image Sony©