Venom: Let There Be Carnage: A Violently Slapstick Domestic Sitcom Punctuated by CGI
By Jim Slotek
Rating: B-minus
If brevity is indeed the soul of wit, at a tidy 90 minutes, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is on point for what it largely is - a violently slapstick domestic sitcom.
In the previous movie, Venom, Marvel’s toothy, extraterrestrial mostly-villainous, brain-eating symbiote, latched on to the only human he could apparently stomach, or even live in for long. That would be Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), a luckless San Francisco journalist who’s been knocked off his tabloid-TV perch and is slumming at an actual tabloid newspaper.
Eddie (Tom Hardy) and his best frenemy try to resolve their issues in Venom 2: Let There Be Carnage.
If you’ve seen the 2018 original, you know the “best frenemy inside me” vibe that was established there, with constant bickering, occasional acts of Venom-induced self-violence (think, “Why are you hitting yourself? – Why are you hitting yourself?”).
Perhaps because it was greenlit so fast, Venom: Let There Be Carnage often seems like they just kept the cameras rolling from the first (though it takes place a year later). Eddie and Venom still bicker constantly, mainly over Eddie’s perceived “loser” status, with resulting damage to the ceilings, and objects hurled out of Eddie’s apartment window.
How deep is their relationship? Couples counselling is only half-jokingly suggested. There is a break-up, Venom, hopping from human to human, finds his way to a costumed rave, where he becomes the star of the show and declares he is, “out of Eddie’s closet!” At one point the L word (love) is dropped.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
Director Andy Serkis (who replaced the first movie’s Ruben Fleischer, with whom Hardy apparently did not get along), has teasingly dropped hints that the relationship might be even more intimate than that, but I’m not sure there is a sexual spectrum acronym long enough to include carnivorous body-occupying aliens.
The plot? Oh yeah, there is one. With Venom’s help, Eddie locates the bodies left behind by convicted serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson riding a persona rather than a fully realized character). Kasady’s sentence is bumped up to death. Meanwhile, the love of Cletus’s life, Shriek (a Spider-Man villain played here by Naomie Harris) is locked away in a secret government facility for people with “mutations” (I’m guessing another studio owns the rights to the word “mutant.”)
A requested pre-execution meeting between Cletus and Eddie goes awry, and Eddie ends up being bitten. This was completely unplanned, but – surprise! – ingestion of Venom blood apparently causes a symbiote of one’s own to grow inside you. Cletus’s new friend, Carnage (hence the title) empowers him to escape the injection chamber, pretty much destroy a prison, killing many, rescue his super-powered princess (killing even more people in the process) and setting up a one-off battle-royale with Eddie/Venom.
The handful of folks who know Eddie’s secret are back, including Eddie’s ex Anne (Michelle Williams), who has slightly more to do this time around), her feckless fiancé Dan (Reid Scott, ditto) and Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), the no-nonsense grocery owner who’s made it her business to keep Venom fed with chocolate (apparently the only substance other than human brains that can keep him alive).
It does speak to a lack of re-think that the villain in Venom 2 is again the same species as Venom. But there is a hint in a post-credit scene of different things to come.
It also suggests the character will finally connect with others in the Marvel Universe. This is something others might welcome, but I kind of liked the fact that this story existed almost without referencing Marvel at all.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Directed by Andy Serkis. Starring Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson and Michelle Williams. Opens in theatres Friday, October 1.