VENOM: LET THERE BE CARNAGE is a gloriously silly sequel – review

2018’s Venom was an outlier in many ways. Here was a comic book movie based on a fan-favourite Marvel property that seemed to disregard everything that had made the MCU films so popular. Granted, the film was produced by Sony and not Marvel Studios, but Venom felt like a relic from another time, an over-the-top comic movie that had more in common with ‘90s comic adaptations like Spawn and Blade than anything the MCU was doing. Now comes Venom: Let There Be Carnage, an incredibly silly sequel that doubles down on what made the first Venom film so uniquely strange.

Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, a struggling reporter in San Francisco learning to live with the fact that an alien symbiote is still attached to his mind and body. The pair make a bit of an odd couple; Eddie wants to get back to his work, while Venom is constantly harping about its need to eat human brains.

Eddie gets a break when he is assigned to interview the serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) on death row. After a brief physical altercation, Cletus is exposed to the alien symbiote and becomes his own human/symbiote hybrid: Carnage (apparently Cletus’ red hair is enough to make the symbiote turn fire engine red). Cletus/Carnage then break free from prison and go in search of Cletus’ long-lost love Frances (Naomie Harris), A.K.A. the deadly Shriek.

Meanwhile, Eddie and Venom have “broken up” after a fight that leaves Eddie’s apartment in ruins. Finally separated from the symbiote that has uprooted his life, Eddie turns to his former girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) to help him track down the escaped Cletus, but he first has to make amends with the now disgruntled Venom, who’s out on the town living his best life.

There’s really not much more to the story than that, which is refreshing in its own way. We called the first Venom a “great bad movie” when it was released, and in many ways, this sequel can claim that same crown this year. It might be the silliest major comics movie released in the last 20 years, which is really saying something.

Directed by Andy Serkis (best known for his incredible motion capture work in The Lord of the Rings and the recent Planet of the Apes franchises), the film has a light slapstick tone that feels like Laurel and Hardy dropping into the middle of a Marvel movie (those pesky multi-verses).

Tom Hardy maintains all of the facial tics and bumbling persona that he brought to Eddie Brock in the first film, but his Venom voice has become incredibly grating. It’s meant to be an odd couple situation with Eddie and Venom constantly bickering with each other, but the dad-level jokes rarely land. You’ll become as fed up with Venom as Eddie is after just a few minutes, which doesn’t bode well for the title character of a franchise.

Very loosely based on the sprawling Maximum Carnage crossover comics event from 1993, Venom: Let There Be Carnage finally lets these two Spider-Man villains duke it out on-screen, and although the tone is about as serious as an ‘80s Saturday morning cartoon, there’s a lot of fun to be had in this incredibly goofy movie. It’s almost refreshing to watch a superhero movie with such low stakes; Cletus wants to reunite with his old love and fight Eddie. That’s about it. There’s no great supervillain plot to wipe out the universe, and for once there’s no massive structure falling to earth in the final moments. (Also: we finally get to see Venom hitting the club.)

Coming in at an incredibly welcome 90 minutes, Venom: Let There Be Carnage flies by without overstaying its welcome. This is a film with no pretensions; it’s not attempting to be anything other than a goofy comics movie with two slithery alien beings duking it out. Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson play off of each other really well, and the film’s lean runtime actually leaves audiences wanting more, an example that many of the bloated Marvel and D.C. films could stand to follow.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is in theatres on October 1, 2021.