Venom sequel brings more laughs than Carnage

The newest Sony Marvel film, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is the sequel to the surprise hit (at least financially) from 2019, and it is the latest in Sony’s attempt to carve out their own Marvel Universe. Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock, along with his symbiot Venom. The two share Eddie’s body, and while Venom wants to go around eating people’s heads, Eddie has talked him down to only eating chickens and chocolate.

To this fragile but stabile relationship, enter villain Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). A serial killer behind bars, it is Brock’s work as a reporter that gets Kasady’s sentence changed to execution. Kasady’s last request is one final interview with Brock, and during it, Kasady bites Brock’s hand, infecting himself with some of Venom’s blood and creating Carnage, another big bad symbiot, with no such qualms about eating people. Kasady escapes, and goes on a rampage to free his long-lost girlfriend (who is every bit as crazy as he), and then go around hunting those that wronged them, including Brock. Brock and Venom have to set their differences aside again and try to take down Carnage before he destroys the entire city.

OK, lots to unwind there, and at a brisk 97 minutes, this movie flies by at breakneck speed. Don’t look for any character development; there isn’t any. It is mindless mayhem from start to finish. Outside of Venom’s crazy humor (like refusing to eat his pet chickens, Sonny and Cher, because their love is special), the movie was kind of a bore for me, until the climactic battle in the end, which I have to admit was pretty good. But it’s just too nuts. I feel like Sony’s Marvel films are having the same problems as the early DC Universe: they are throwing way too much at the wall and hoping something sticks. Honestly the best part of the movie was the wonderful end credits scene, building excitement for the future of the franchise. I hovered around the 2 star range, but am bumping it a bit in hopes that Sony can right this ship in the future. I love Tom Hardy, and while this film doesn’t properly showcase him, the next Sony Marvel flick (outside of Marvel-produced Spider Man 3) brings in another great actor, Jared Leto, in next year’s Morbius. Here’s hoping! ★★½