Friday, January 7, 2022

Venom: Let There Be Carnage



RATING: D+

As it turns out, more people were interested in an antihero Venom movie than might have been expected. Despite getting mixed reception and having seemingly limited appeal, the first one of these made plenty of money and therefore we have a sequel. And that sequel, while still trapped a bit by the problems of its predecessor, does introduce the symbiote variant known as Carnage, a character that had been long-awaited. 

In this follow-up, Eddie Brock--host of the symbiote Venom--is still a struggling journalist who doesn't have much going for him except occasional crime-fighting with Venom's powers. Brock gets a bit of a break, however, when he gets the opportunity to interview serial killer Cletus Kasady. After meeting Brock, Kasady is able to accidentally acquire some of the symbiote--which causes him to be taken by the symbiote variant that emerges, aka Carnage. An inevitable duel eventually ensues. 

This sequel suffers from many of the same problems that the first one does. Brock is still not that enjoyable of a character, and a normally enjoyable Tom Hardy mumbles his way through the film again. Some of the banter between him and Venom is still amusing, but Venom himself is oddly a little more goofy this time. That's one new problem with this movie; it takes the more light-hearted aspect of this movie and pushes it to the brink where there's an issue with tonal clashing with the darker plotline involving Kasady/Carnage. If you saw some of the marketing and wondered why there were scenes of Venom in a nightclub wearing neon bands, it's about as ridiculous as it sounds. 

The main plus here is the addition of Kasady/Carnage (Woody Harrelson), and while he is introduced within a decent period of time, he and Venom don't actually meet until the final act. That said, that final act is admittedly pretty awesome and for hardcore fans, this alone may make it worth the watch. The fortunate thing is also that this one is shorter and doesn't pad itself as much as the previous one at only 97 minutes. 

The problem remains just how silly a lot of this film is. It's understandable that they leaned into this angle a bit more, given that it was the most successful part of the first movie; but it's taken to a crazy point here. Venom does not always feel like Venom. And Naomie Harris, who plays Shriek, aka Marvel's Black Canary, delivers an absurdly over-the-top performance that wouldn't feel out of place in a B-movie and yet doesn't even manage to be enjoyable in an amusing way. And as mentioned before, the wackier tone of this movie clashes with the darker parts, including the finale which slips into gothic territory. 

Let There Be Carnage is ultimately still held back by the issues of scattershot writing and odd characterization choices that this budding franchise has been built around. There's slightly more redeemable material here simply by a fan favorite villain making their first film appearance here. But one's enjoyability of this will still likely boil down to how interested they are in watching Venom and Carnage fight each other, or just seeing the latter in general. If that is not of interest, then one should not bother with this. 

No comments:

Post a Comment