Venom: Let There Be Carnage
review by Bobby Blakey
In 2018 director Ruben Fleischer and Tom Hardy teamed up to bring the famed Spider-Man villain symbiote to the big screen with Venom. I thought the film was a blast and worked way better than I had anticipated and even gave us a tag promising more to come with the promise of Carnage stepping into the universe with Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The film co-stars Michelle Williams reprising her role as Eddie's ex, Naomie Harris, Woody Harrelson, Reid Scott, Stephen Graham and Sean Delaney with Andy Serikis in the director’s seat/ . Could this film live up to the chaos of Carnage or will it fail to bond with the fans?
Venom: Let There Be Carnage follows investigative journalist Eddie Brock who struggles to adjust to life as the host of the alien symbiote Venom, which grants him super-human abilities in order to be a lethal vigilante over a year after the events of the first film. Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution.
I was on the fence on the first Venom film being a solo film and not connecting to Spider-Man at all. To my surprise I had a great time with it and even more so with the promise of Carnage thanks to an after credit scene with Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady. I was huge fan of the original run of Venom and Carnage in the comics so to get to see these to come to life had me excited enough to see the film, but just hoped for the best.
While the film is a bit all over the place at times and really chaotic in a good way it delivers enough that I was thoroughly entertained. Seeing Carnage was no doubt awesome and his look is spot on, but the real treat here is the relationship between Venom and Brock. They share some great banter throughout the film that I thought outshined pretty much everything else, but I can see how it might annoy some.
Surrounding their dysfunctional body sharing situation is the story of
Carnage and Shriek We get a back story on them as well leading into this story and it’s just enough to get you somewhat invested in them. I found it a bit of a stretch as it being the catalyst that leads this story, but it still works well enough. Before anyone tries to remind me, I am aware of their comic connections and they are surely playing up on that just would have preferred more meat to it. Outside of the fun moments with Brock and Venom is the action that carries this film and there is plenty of it.
In its hour and a half run time it wastes no time in getting to the good stuff and letting Carnage tear up the screen as much as possible. Harrelson looks to be having a blast in the role showing signs of my favorite character of serial killer Mickey from Natural Born Killers with a bit more fun. Hardy clearly loves this character and is all in offering up a great performance having to do much of his acting with himself. The rest of the cast are all good here with Naomi Harris chewing up the screen as Shriek, but this is really all Hardy’s show.
I had a great time with this film and so happy that Carnage has made his long overdue live action debut and can only hope its not the last of the character. The ending does a good job wrapping things up and does offer some cliff hangers and finite moments for characters, but it’s a comic film so anything is possible. Stay through the credits per usual for a pretty epic sequence that will no doubt have fans excited for the future of the franchise.
In addition to the film this release offers up bonus content including outtakes & bloopers, deleted scenes, featurettes and more. Grab your copy of Venom: Let There Be Carnage available now on digital and then on 4K, Blu-ray and DVD on December 14th from Sony.