The Mosley Review: Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Ya know, sometimes its a blessing in disguise that some films only have a runtime of a little over 90 minutes. Once you know that, you know what to expect. Get in, have fun, see some stuff explode in glorious fashion, tell a not so memorable story and you’re out. That's basically what this film was in a nutshell. This was entertaining at best, but the first film actually took its time to tell an interesting story albeit being not particularly sure of its tone. This film had a fun horror tone that was fun to explore in the most "violent" PG-13 style you could deliver. I could feel the more detailed, darker R rated story and nature of Venom and Carnage clawing at the thick plexiglass and it was disappointing. To tell you the truth, I thought the original was alright. I felt it wasn't a true representation of Venom or Eddie Brock that needed to be seen. This film solidifies my thoughts, but it does deliver on something that I hoped it would.

Tom Hardy returns as Eddie Brock / Venom and both of them are more manic than ever. Tom is great in everything he does, but he mostly just fumbles around in the film. In my opinion, he has lost what makes Eddie interesting and now he is just a fool. Venom delves deeper into his personality and now delivers more jokes and I liked that. He is hangrier and more moody than a emo teen of the early 2000's. The 2 of them still work together and are worth watching for the action they find themselves in. Michelle Williams returns as Anne and she was good as you'd expect. She was useful to a point and then becomes the damsel in distress. Naomi Harris was good as Frances Barrison / Shriek. I liked seeing her be a villain for a change, but it is really short lived. Woody Harrelson was truly the standout in the film. As Cletus Kasady / Carnage, he was perfectly cast and really nails the creepy and murderous joy the character is known for. I thought the romance between him and Frances was decent and it gave me the Natural Born Killers vibe. As Carnage, he was even more unhinged and ALMOST the representation I wanted to see. He was wild, violent and all over the place, but heavily restrained by the film's rating. The film did the characters half justice and maybe one day in the future there will be REAL Carnage. Stephen Graham was excellent as Detective Mulligan and I loved his determination to hunt down Cletus and Frances. Peggy Lu returns and was even more awesome as Mrs. Chen. I love her character so much.

The score by Marco Beltrami was perfectly bombastic and fit the erratic and horrific nature of the film. Visually the film was great to look at, but I did wish the camera was pulled back a little bit to show off the scale of the symbiotes as they fought. Like I said before, the story was extremely rushed and lacked any depth we had from the first film. This was basically a run of the mill story that's in your basic creature feature you'd find on midnight television in the late 90's. The visual effects and action were cool, the darker tone was a plus but beyond any of that, this was a forgettable film. Do stick around for cool the mid credit scene. I thought it was smooth and subtle, but I'm still saddened by its ramifications. Let me know what you thought of the film or my review in the comments below. Thanks for reading!