Ryan Shoots First: Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Venom shocked a lot of people when it was released in 2018, it was one of those movies that had no business being as good as it was and it was released at the perfect time. It felt a lot like the early days of comic book movies but was released at the height of the MCU. It was like a fun throwback. It made no sense with Spider-Man not being a part… Eddie being in San Francisco but by God if it wasn’t fun seeing Venom want to eat everyone in sight.
Fast forward and we now have the inevitable collision of Venom and Carnage. As a kid of the 90’s Venom and Carnage were the upper tier of comic book villains for me. We had the Todd McFarlane Spidey run and the Fox Kids cartoon show to burn the symbiotes into our lexicon. So Spidey or no Spidey seeing the symbiote on screen going at it is appointment cinema. That brings us to Woody Harrelson which is some great casting, he is just kooky enough and crazy enough to pull off Cletus Kasady. Carnage himself looks amazing on screen, Venom is pretty much the same as he was in 2018 and despite the giant spider on his chest that was a good look but Carnage is perfect. The way Cletus morphs into Carnage as opposed to Eddie being covered by Venom is a cool dynamic as Cletus may be more in tune with his new partner than even Eddie.
Director Andy Serkis takes the bonkers action of the first movie and injects even more scope and insanity. The bigger budget and hype was put to good use. The Venom-verse as I suppose we will call it is expanded and given a lot of room to grow in what was originally thought to be a weird red headed step child Marvel movie. Also, of course stay after for credits. While Carnage undoubtedly steals the show he is only as good as the main man in black Venom. Eddie Brock is once again played by Tom Hardy who has just taken ownership of this version of Brock. His quirky seeming oaf-ness is a little less than the first movie at first as him and Venom have settled into a rhythm but the events of the movie quickly put the two back into the weirdest buddy cop genre movie you will ever see. And at it’s core that’s kind of the sub genre Venom plays in the most is the buddy cop movie. But in this case it’s Buddy-citizen journalist blogger. Either way Hardy acts his butt off in these movies as it cant be easy delivering this performance without Venom really there to play of off. Lots of blood vessels killed from all the straining is all I will say.
If you liked the first Venom you’re going to love Let There Be Carnage, if you were so so on it but love the Carnage character you too should really give the film a shot as I think you will walk away pleased with both characters. If you hate it all because it isn’t exactly like the comic you chose to be the definitive source even though both these characters have had numerous changes and different stories told about them… well stay home you will not be missed.
