Directed by:
Andy SerkisScreenplay:
Kelly MarcelCinematography:
Robert RichardsonComposer:
Marco BeltramiCast:
Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Woody Harrelson, Naomie Harris, Stephen Graham, Reid Scott, Sean Delaney, Laurence Spellman, Etienne Vick, Amber Sienna, Peggy Lu (more)VOD (1)
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Tom Hardy returns to the big screen as the lethal protector Venom, one of Marvel’s greatest and most complex characters. Directed by Andy Serkis, Screenplay by Kelly Marcel with the Story by Tom Hardy & Kelly Marcel, the film also stars Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris and Woody Harrelson, in the role of the villain Cletus Kasady/Carnage. (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment)
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Reviews (9)
Venom as a pro-migrant agitator and declared bisexual is the surprising revelation of this sequel. Nevertheless, Let There Be Carnage is a tiny bit better than part one. It passes by nicely and is funny in its silly way and its running time is short. As if Serkis simply cut the boring and unfunny bits out. Some of the twists and revelations appear very farfetched and all-of-a-sudden. Stress is on the marital quarrels of the continuously weirdly acting Hardy along with Venom, and all the other things surrounding this just happen to happen, god knows how. It lacks any logic. And it would just be a waste of time to go into analysis of degradation when compared to the source material. P.S.: Harrelson spends his time strangely overacting; this role is acutely uncomfortable for him.
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The second Venom is more about digital monsters than about Hardy. Furthermore, they are two digimonsters that would look the same in a black-and-white movie. On the other hand, Venom “on his own two feet” is fun and his attendance of a party is one of the film’s best moments. The bad guys don’t arouse much fear, as their motivation is shoddy and their interactions with those around them come off as frivolous, like other things in the movie. In the final dark, overwrought digifest, I really didn’t give a damn who was throwing whom where or who was falling where or what was falling on them. Otherwise, Hardy on a motorcycle is great, and Michelle Williams... Michelle Williams! She gives the movie a much needed aesthetic element. If it wasn’t for her, I'd give Let There Be Carnage two stars.
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I was a bit apprehensive about this sequel, mostly worried it would follow the same formula as the first one — and it did, almost exactly. Once again, the whole movie revolves around Tom Hardy. Venom still leaves me unsure whether I’m supposed to root for him or not, and Woody Harrelson’s villainous role feels completely unnecessary. With the first film, at least I got a few laughs, but even the humor feels lacking this time around. And don’t get me started on the overly artificial CGI. It’s like a budget version of the Marvel universe, and it shows.
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Venom 2 is a perfect example of a one-off action flick. Story-wise, it doesn't have much to surprise – except perhaps, if I'm getting ahead of myself, the post-credit scene – and with a relatively short running time, there's not really much room for any plot-twists (except maybe one tiny one). The film relies mainly on action, light (black-and-red) humour and the interaction between the two "aliens", which doesn't always work. The character of Frances "Banshee" Barrison was largely underused, which is a shame. A brisk, perhaps a bit too digital in places for (really) just one viewing!
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Venom 2 is such a disappointment that I feel like giving it 2 stars, but that would be biased, so a neutral 3 with a bitter taste in my mouth and an exclamation point for next time. Venom was a pleasant surprise, maybe because Ruben Fleischer was in charge of it, and he was able to handle the humour (Zombieland) and the action (Gangster Squad). Unfortunately, the sequel is directed by Andy Serkis (who has only done Mowgli) and suddenly the humour and action stops working. Tom Hardy is surprisingly unlikeable in this film and I didn’t enjoy his role at all, he's not funny or interesting, he doesn't show anything in action, in short a useless, uninteresting and boring character, and Woody Harrelson, whom I generally like, also didn't show much of anything – their dialogue exchanges are uninteresting and I didn't enjoy listening to them at all, I silently remembered the dialogue from Bond, yes, a strange comparison, but when they give dialogue clashes between two great actors, let me feel the intense darkness in the air, not these childish exchanges. Humour could have been a strong point, but I only laughed once in the whole film and that was with Venom at the disco, the rest is infantile and you don’t even smile. Nobody laughed at all in the cinema, so it's not just me. The Gore is missing of course, but I counted on it. The visuals and the effects are inoffensive, but definitely not breathtaking. Shortening the film to 90 minutes hurts the the film because it practically has no story and everything is rushed. On the other hand, if ti was two hours long, I probably wouldn’t last, because Venom 2 is not very entertaining. And now about the action. There are two short action scenes that end before they even start and then a half hour finale that I won't tell you anything about because I was asleep with boredom, so I'll have to recap that sometime. Anyway, going into Venom thinking it was a comic book action flick and leaving as bored and frazzled as a two-hour Drama, I didn't expect that in the slightest. Ironically, the post-credit scene is better than the movie itself. Story 2/5, Action 3/5, Humor 2/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 3/5. 5/10.
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