2021 Reviews – Venom: Let There Be Carnage

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‘Knock-knock, and let the devil in…’ I may have found the first Venom a little underwhelming but that accompanying Eminem track hits hard. I’ve started to become optimistic with sequels recently, because I’ve realised that movies can learn from their predecessor’s mistakes, and with first impressions out the way, there’s no need to worry about making first impressions. I really do want this franchise to succeed, and it’s funny; as a self-confessed Spider-Man fan, I really haven’t come across Venom or Carnage all that much – I have read The Amazing Spider-Man #1-150, where Venom hadn’t been created yet, and I’ve read the complete run of Ultimate Spider-Man, but Venom’s origin is so altered, I can hardly call myself familiar. So, I don’t really have a dog in the fight; only my imagination, looking at the character, as to how grave I considered Brock and Venom would be – I’m learning as I go.

Imprisoned serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) asks ostracised journalist Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) to publish quotes in the paper in exchange for information on undiscovered victims, that leads to Kasady receiving a death penalty. Feeling wildly betrayed, Kasady bites Brock, unknowingly ingesting blood carrying the symbiote Venom, mixing and mutating with his body to create Carnage. Carnage together with Kasady wield the strength to escape prison, leaving a trail of murderous blood-lust, and plotting their retaliation on Brock and Venom. Meanwhile, Brock and Venom still can’t see eye-to-eye, as Venom is always hangry, while Brock stresses Venom must keep calm and stay quiet, for safety’s sake. Andy Serkis steps up to direct, and who better to plot out where a big CGI alien should sit in a frame, than the man who pretty much fostered motion-capture CGI into existence.

You know, what I realised is great about Venom is that his powers are transferable, and Venom has the ability to pass through the movie’s allies like passing a baton – not all superhero movies can boast a quirk like that. The villain Carnage seems to have been created during a time where Spider-Man’s rogue gallery was getting serious; where a bad guy was a full-on serial killer, and not some old codger with mechanical wings out to steal jewels (that would be the Vulture). Therefore, you would absolutely plead that Venom: Let There Be Carnage has upped its violence rating from the last movie, to allow maximum carnage to be unleashed. In reality, the action scenes are still a little stifled, surprisingly, when you’d think Serkis would map it out to showcase the CGI action very well; the camera cuts away when heads are being bitten off, yet Carnage is appropriately menacing, and I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything, tonally. Venom and Brock’s strained relationship is still grating at times, but at least Venom has a genuine concern, being hungry all the time. The two bicker like the odd couple, and at least Venom is competent – he is brawn and brain. A real knock on the movie is, Eddie Brock and competency; not so much. Thinking back to Spider-Man 3, sure that version of Eddie Brock was a dick, but he was competent. And since Eddie Brock is our protagonist now, I think it’s important that we see value in him. The first act of this movie actually reminded me more of Spider-Man 2 – Eddie Brock and Venom are having trouble cohabitating, like how Peter Parker couldn’t fulfil his obligations because of Spider-Man, but again, Peter Parker was competent, and we wanted him to succeed. In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the alien symbiote is even leading the way on Brock’s journalistic work, finding the clues and figuring out Kasady’s murder sites, putting Brock back on top for him – Brock isn’t offering Venom much other than a compatible meat-vest, and it’s hard to love your protagonist when he’s useless.

But the movie is doing other things and Cletus Kasady, is awesome. I think there’s people out there that have wanted Woody Harrelson as Kasady since, like, Natural Born Killers in the nineties, and, despite the couple of decades that have passed, the movie makes it work. I love his garish suit, and the hairstyle. I love the story; how Kasady and Frances Barrison/Shriek (Naomi Harris) only want to be together – I don’t know how much is lifted from the source material, but it’s sweet that two misfits still have room in their hearts for love, and marriage has not been a familiar motivator for the Marvel cinematic villainous-types thus far. I say ‘villainous’, because we don’t really know how bad Shriek is; she seems to have been locked up and kept down because she was different, even though there could be more of a sordid past with her that the movie leaves out. Seeing Shriek in the Venom: Let There Be Carnage trailer is akin to finding a smoking gun, because these symbiotes are averse to sound, and so it’s probably even-money that she would play a part in taking Carnage down – call me, Detective Today Junior. Speaking of detectives, Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) is an earnest assistant to Brock; he sure went to cop-cliché school though, didn’t he? ‘Secrets want out’ and ‘information is currency’ – it’s cute is what it is, and I won’t hold it against him (especially when he looks like he might get scary in potential future instalments). I’ve been spruiking Naomi Harris for the next Bond film; a spin-off that focuses primarily on Moneypenny, and even though this sneering villain Shriek is material in the complete opposite direction, I think it’s evidence of her range, and further proof that she’s charismatic enough to lead a big-budget production, no? Also, I liked Michelle Williams more in this movie too – she’s either more relaxed in her part or her part is written better than before, and I gravitated more towards her scenes.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage won’t take the world by storm, but I enjoyed it. In the next one, I hope to see Eddie Brock and Venom working together as a street-level vigilante or anti-hero, like a more dangerous Spider-Man, and it seems like that’s what this movie is setting up with the Lethal Protector. But hey, I’d also take a Venom movie with Venom latched on to Ms. Chen (Peggy Lu) – who can honestly tell me that wouldn’t be sick? Whatever comes first.

3.5

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