Venom: Let There Be Carnage Review: The 'butchered' superhero sequel is saved by a rambunctious Tom Hardy

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Venom: Let There Be Carnage Cast: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris

Venom: Let There Be Carnage Director: Andy Serkis

Venom: Let There Be Carnage Stars: 2.5/5

"Let There Be Carnage", a phrase which director Andy Serkis and co-writer Kelly Marcel (Tom Hardy also has writing credits. this time around!) took to heart in Venom's sequel as Tom Hardy reprises his role as both Eddie Brock and the alien symbiote with only brains in his mind, Venom. With the supporting cast playing fillers on the sidelines, the 'opposites' buddy bromance schtick between Eddie and Brock soon falls flat in Venom: Let There Be Carnage.

Set immediately after the events of the first instalment, Venom: Let There Be Carnage enthusiastically picks right off with Eddie now trying to live a stable life while constantly butting heads with Venom, who has an ultra-ego of his own. Even though the superhero flick is tightly wrapped in under 97 minutes, I found the slapstick humour surrounding Venom's diet plan of just chocolates and live chickens, when all he wants are brains, exhaustive after a point. Things take a turn for the worse during an encounter with serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), who is sentenced to the death penalty on Eddie's accord.

A vicious bite out of Eddie leads to Cletus ingesting a bit of the symbiote and as you'd expect, Carnage is born. Carnage is an even deadlier looking beast than Venom while Woody tries to revive his Natural Born Killers vibe. Unsurprisingly, we see an eventual battle between the two beasts, reminiscent of Godzilla vs. Kong but more limited geographically and with less collateral damage. Add to the table; we have Eddie's ex-fiancée Anne Weying (Michelle Williams), who is the perpetual damsel in distress and perfect bait to lure both Eddie and Venom and Cletus' first love Frances Barrison, also a mutant named Shriek, whose sonic sound powers is basically shrieking others to their deathbeds.

When it comes to Tom Hardy, the Oscar-nominated actor has a ton of fun with the 'odd couple' physical acting between Eddie and Venom in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. However, the buck stops too fast and furiously, for me, owing to the tacky dialogues which are as humourless as it gets. Almost like a five-year-old wrote it! Also included is a not subtle plug-in of Sony TV (obviously!), which is added to the overfilled broth with a "Nice TV" quip to rudely interrupt the suspension of comic disbelief. The amount of wreckage caused when Eddie and Venom are at loggerheads had the potential to be a lethal on-screen spectacle but is quickly dampened by unnecessary chatter. The whole self-realisation and acceptance angle for the "Lethal Protectors" gets lost in translation, especially, due to the overabundance of CGI, which was painful to watch.

As for Woody, fans, including this writer, were tremendously excited for Harrelson to take on the bats**t crazy villain and as dope as Carnage looked on the big screen, too much attention on the buddy bromance between Eddie and Venom left little weightage in understanding the antagonist and his motives. Woody does a fine job but you really couldn't invest in him, until the very soapy end. What really connected Cletus to Eddie? That also brings me to the shoddy editing by Maryann Brandon and Stan Salfas as abrupt cuts without explanation are aplenty throughout the one hour and 30 minutes duration, relying on the audience to fill in the missing pieces of a gory puzzle. 

While Robert Richardson's cinematography was inspired and Marco Beltrami's eclectic music enthralled, the overambitious CGI was lacklustre, and that's a pity, given the inimitable motion capture actor Andy Serkis' heavy involvement as director in the movie. The final fight sequence doesn't live up to the wide-eyed expectations due to its anti-climatic surrendering but loyal Marvel enthusiasts will still get a kick out of the glossy battle between Venom and Carnage.

ALSO READ: Tom Hardy talks about working with 'formidable' Woody Harrelson on Venom: Let There Be Carnage

The lack of focus on what Venom's sequel is trying to project, whether it's a comedy or dark undercuts and also its very existence, can be indebted to Kelly and Tom's underwhelming screenplay, which ultimately makes you understand Andy's cryptic direction. It's a travesty that supremely talented actresses like Michelle and Naomie played second fiddle of the '90s kind. They deserved better. Even Stephen Graham and Reid Scott, who reprise their roles as Detective Patrick Mulligan and Anne's fiance Dan Lewis, get 'close to nothing' screen space.

In finality, it seems like the only reason why there even is a Venom: Let There Be Carnage, besides bringing in some big bucks at the box office, is the interlacing of Venom into the Spider-Man multiverse storyline. Which it does, but a little too late. The superhero genre is taking its audience for granted, at this point! I shudder to imagine what a Venom 3 will entail.