Venom: Let There Be Carnage sequelizes Ruben Fleischer's 2018 hit, creating a monster-vs-monster tit for tat. To bolster its creature quotient, this one is directed by a man who's played a few, Andy Serkis. The actor-turned-director works off a spiffy script by Kelly Marcel, and the two achieve raucous results.
This time out, Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock and his parasitic alter-ego, Venom, grow evermore stressed as he tracks the maniac we met at the prior film's credit roll: Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, played by Woody Harrelson, who takes the alien-symbiote concept to an unbiddable, new high. With Kasady on the homicidal run, the mayhem mounts to the point where one wonders which mutant will emerge on top.
Like the first film, Venom 2 skips direct Spider-man referencing, and unlike the first, it holds a stronger, comic-book ambiance. We're talking old-school Marvel (well before Venom and Carnage were even born), where a tongue-in-check levity bounces from panel to panel. This approach may not suit all viewers, but if one accepts the manic style, the hi-jinks are hard to shake.
As a judicious carryover, Michelle Williams' Anne Weying remains the saga's leading lady, looking as pretty as a picture and lending much needed support to Brock's Jekyll/Hyde integrant. To contrast the compassionate Weying, Naomi Harris plays Kasady's main squeeze, Frances Barrington, the harrowed soul known as Shriek.
Though its formula is congenial (to a large degree due to Serkis' zesty direction), Let There Be Carnage isn't any more compounded than its predecessor, but then this one was clearly designed as a popcorn movie and not Shakespeare. Its overabundant action sequences also place it on a par with current, MCU ensembles. (The big, church finale is nothing short of inebriating.)
Can't wait to see Venom (and perhaps even Carnage) invade a Tom Holland/Spidey sequel. (The chance that Stephen Graham's Detective Mulligan may carry on the big, red guy is also strong.) Give it time. A major overlap is ordained.
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