Review: Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)
Barely palatable, despite its great ingredients
With Spiderman No Way Home just around the corner, I felt compelled to go watch the second Venom movie in the cinema, even though there were at least five other movies I wanted to see. It was… not my best decision. Because this movie is quite a mess, with great actors who manage the occasional moment of greatness, but are ultimately gobbled up by the messy, confusing script.
Directed by Andy Serkis, Venom: Let There Be Carnage follows Eddie Brock (an okay Tom Hardy) once more, as he tries to find some balance living with the alien symbiote called Venom (a better Tom Hardy?). They have a falling out, but not before accidentally infusing the death-row serial killer Cletus Kassady (a scenery-chewing Woody Harrelson) with an even more unhinged red version of the symbiote that calls itself Carnage (an evil and rather boring Woody Harrelson?). Michelle Williams also shows up as Brock’s ex, and she does some amazing work, even if she is underused. Naomie Harris plays Kassady’s not-seen-in-a-few-decades sweetheart, locked up for years because of her superpowers, and she is wasted to such a degree that it is this close to being a criminal offense.
The first act of the movie is especially weird, with a lot of beats that seem to imply a payoff, or at least some sort of build-up beforehand, but with seemingly no setup. Not that it is super complex, just… bewildering. Once Carnage shows up and the action gets well and truly underway, it stops mattering as much, but then other problems crop up. Like I said, my main issue is with Harris’ Shriek. I don’t mind that she plays it weird and unhinged; her character has been locked up in total isolation for her entire adult life, so crazy is to be expected. But here is a woman who has done nothing wrong, has been locked up for who she is, with a superpower that is a direct counter to both the hero and the villain. So of course they set up a redemption arc, how could they not? It’s done badly, however, and then snuffed out for a lazy joke. How could they?!
Look, I get it, Venom is not a hero. The weird jig they attempt to both have their cake and eat it, though, it doesn’t work. He’s a surly teenager at best, a whiny child at worst. That it remains PG-13 is also funny (but not haha funny), as they do maximalize the gruesomeness in some scenes, without technically showing anything. I did occasionally miss some blood spatter. What felt weirder was the symbiotes’ weakness to sound. It’s probably a holdover from the comics, but how on earth are church bells so effective, while gunshots do absolutely nothing? Gunshots are louder than bells, and there are a lot of gunshots!
So, yeah, I wasn’t a fan. The actors do their best, the CGI is good, and occasionally there is a flash of brilliance; a few great lines here, a beautiful shot there. But the script, you know, the thing that should tie everything together, never manages to build any kind of momentum, let alone create a coherent, emotional story. Hopefully Venom can find his sweet spot if he’s ever allowed to tangle with Spider-Man. As a villain. R-right?!
