THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
No one expected Venom to be a decent film until it became a box office success. With it being more successful than anticipated, it was given for a sequel to come around.
PLOT
Let There Be Carnage follows Eddie Brock continuing his life as an investigative reporter, while keeping secret of bonding with the alien symbiote Venom. Eddie has changed his mind on killing criminals in order to avoid leaving a trail behind, which infuriates Venom as it grows tired of relying on chicken and chocolate as a top source of food. As a reporter, they have been able to interview serial killer Cletus Kasady who prefers to only talk to Brock. When Venom takes notice of his cell, they deduce clues to find missing bodies of Kasady’s victims, which does give a career boost for his host. The discovery of the bodies finds the killer guilty and sentenced to death by lethal injection. Venom is even dissatisfied to hear that Eddie’s ex Anne Weying is now engaged to Dr Dan Lewis (Reid Scott) as he believes his host deserves a second chance. A day after such disappointing news, Eddie gets a letter from Kasady to visit him before his scheduled death. He uses this as an advantage to have another interview but during this, Kasady does nothing but insult him. This provokes Venom and decides to attack him. Kasady defends himself by biting Brock’s hand, ingesting a piece of the symbiote that becomes a spawn. When the protagonist duo get kicked out and go back home, they bicker on how they need each other, but unable to agree on who is at fault. Their argument ends with the two separating, resulting in Venom going from host to host all over San Francisco to enjoy free will. Kasady is able to break out of prison with the symbiote spawn he would dub ‘Carnage’. Once he is free, he quickly goes to Ravencroft Institute to free his girlfriend Frances Barrison who is capable of supersonic screams. Back in 1996, they were separated and when she was taken into custody, she got into a fight with officer now detective Patrick Mulligan. Although both survived the altercation, Mulligan thought to have killed her because he got concussed during it. When he frees her, her powers put a struggle in her relationship in a pickle as the high pitch frequency irritates/weakens symbiotes like Carnage. As they reunite, they burn down the abandoned orphanage they grew up in, St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children. When Mulligan hears of Kasady and Barrison breaking out, he grows suspicious of Brock and holds him into custody due to being the last to interact with Kasady before the breakout. Brock contacts Anne to represent him, letting her know that he separated with Venom and he needs him to stop Kasady. She finds him with his friend, local convenience store owner Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) and when she bonds with him, she reunites him with Eddie. As the two make amends and begin their search, Kasady and Barrison kidnap Anne, Mulligan and a priest. The latter is kidnapped because they plan to get married at a cathedral that is in the process of refurbishment. Although Venom is scared of his spawn, Eddie encourages him to fight back by promising to kill people again. During the conflict, Barrison tries to kill Mulligan by hanging him with a chain. Carnage stops her because he intends to kill her, hoping to eliminate his only other threat. When Venom is overpowered though, he convinces her to turn on him. She summons one last scream that causes the symbiotes to separate from the hosts. When she falls to her death, a bell crushes her. Venom bonds with Eddie in time to save him, but Kasady is unable to reunite with Carnage and hits the floor. Venom then ultimately decides to devour his spawn before biting off Kasady’s head. When Anne reunites with Dan, Eddie & Venom must go on the run since their escape from the station makes them fugitives. However, Mulligan is left for dead but appears to be bonded with a brand new symbiote. The film ends with a shocking mid credit scene: As Eddie & Venom reside somewhere tropical, they later find themselves in another universe after blinding lights transport them to a totally different hotel room. They also see the news playing on the television, showing J Jonah Jameson (JK Simmons) of The Daily Bugle reporting the identity of the superhero Spider-Man to be Peter Parker (Tom Holland), labeling him as a menace to society.
THOUGHTS
Due to the soft spot I had for the first film, I knew it was inevitable for me to see this film as well. After seeing it in theaters opening weekend, it goes without saying that I enjoyed this one as well. In his third outing in the director's chair, Andy Serkis was able to make this sequel better than the original by making the known wild feeling become authentic this time around. And when keeping Kelly Marcel as the film's screenwriter, she had the chance to make it feel a bit more organized. While this is a good standalone story, it is cool that it got to briefly crossover with the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While this interpretation of the titular character never got the chance to meet the iconic superhero, at least Spider-Man: No Way Home planted a seed for something special. Thanks to having Robert Richardson as cinematographer, along with much improved visual effects, I get a better view of every action sequence the symbiotes have, which was the biggest problem I had the first time around. Without a decent cast, I'm not sure what direction this movie would've gone and lucky for us, each actor stood out which helps keep it all the more entertaining. Tom Hardy delivers once again with his dual performance of Eddie and Venom. Seeing the two bicker can be funny to see, but it comes to show how much their relationship has grown. Eddie is in a much different scenario where he is making the best of his second chance at life, but Venom has to remind him to appreciate it in the long run. Since it's clear that he'll never get Anne back, Venom was there for emotional support while also insisting him to listen to his inner voice. Eddie would always try to return the favor by helping him control his vices. Succumbing to a chicken diet sounds terrible, but it proves that you have to control your vices or they control you. When Venom briefly left him, he realized that he would've not gotten far without him, hence giving him permission to kill Kasady. Since their time in another universe was brief, there's definitely another journey heading their way. The biggest upgrade this movie got was a memorable villain. With the wise casting of Woody Harrelson, he lives up to the hype of playing his most sadistic role since Natural Born Killers. He accurately depicts the antagonist as one who is far from redemption, despite coming from a troubled upbringing. That period of his life created the sociopath he is known to be and from there, he would enjoy every homicidal tendency that sparked his mind. He found his match through Frances because they both understood each other's pain and every time they were together, it felt a little less painless. Carnage on the other hand is forever frightening for being one that cares about himself, solely concerned with being at the top of the food chain, by living up to his name. Thankfully, this reign of terror did not last long. I never really thought of who would ever play Shriek because it just never crossed my mind. However, I thought the casting of Naomie Harris was another good decision. The actress succeeds in making her just as wicked as her other half and with such a formidable power, she would have definitely caused a lot of mayhem had things worked out with Carnage. But let's face it, they were doomed from the start. Michelle Williams makes Anne such a debatable character because while I still don't ship her with Dan, which I'll get to later, it's good to know that she still cares about Eddie enough to help him reunite with Venom. And lastly, Stephen Graham was another good addition to the cast as Patrick Mulligan. He stood out for portraying him as the most firm of characters since he is so determined to contain the chaos and protect the city, like any fictional cop we've seen before. The difference here is that his past experience with Frances haunt yet motivate him to stay on the right side of the law, which is why he hardly budges with Eddie. Seeing him at the end with the new symbiote is a hybrid spawn of Venom and Carnage, which happened as a result of Frances' last scream. The comics refer to it as 'Toxin' and if he has it, there is no telling how long he could keep himself in check before it takes him over to embrace the violent tendencies it is capable of doing so. Despite having more fun than anticipated, this sequel had just as much issues as the first film. To get it out of the way, people are pretty much blind to the fact that Venom exists. The police station, interrogation room and execution room had no cameras at all whenever the symbiote acted out. No one in the restaurant noticed Venom giving Eddie a touch up before seeing Anne and nobody in the streets of San Francisco noticed the giant middle finger. To top that off, no one at the rave noticed Venom transform in front of them all. It didn’t even look that dark for him to do it. I mean Venom is just living on luck not being spotted. And how come no neighbor has ever complained of Eddie’s ruckus? There’s a bunch of cracks in the ceiling, so he’s making a bunch of noise loud enough to get attention. It’s hard to believe that only one guy from outside the building would complain instead of someone indoors. And am I the only one wondering there was only one news crew interviewing Eddie live. He made a giant discovery with the amount of dead bodies and a discovery like that would mean multiple reporters on the scene wanting to talk to him. I really don’t want to hate Anne, but I’m onboard with others when I say she’s making a mistake staying with Dan. I get that he’s more honest than Eddie, but look at the two and he is just a downgrade. She even presses on too hard for expecting Eddie to pretend to be proud when he says ‘Way to go’. I find that good enough when expecting ‘I’m happy for you’. I also wonder how did Cletus know of Eddie’s personal life. It’s not like he is famous enough to have an autobiography discussing that he had bad parenting like him. And I know Eddie has nothing against Mulligan but since they don’t see eye to eye, he should’ve asked for a warrant. It would’ve been a gamble, but at least it would’ve helped avoiding/delaying the chance of figuring out Venom exists. The biggest question I had about symbiotes is how do they know how to hack into a laptop by just injecting itself within? I know we need the reunion to happen between Cletus and Frances, but one sentence could’ve explained how Carnage can do that. The biggest mistake Cletus makes in this movie is not giving Carnage a heads up about Frances’ powers. I can let it slide that he forgets to tell Frances of his weakness because he’s caught up in the moment, but considering that he wants his new ally on the same page, that should’ve been a top priority to share. I’m also wondering how did they get into Ravencroft without setting off alarms? We see them drive there, but that’s it. It would’ve been cool to see how stealth they were. I was pretty irritated that Mulligan chose not to offer Eddie witness protection when Cletus broke out. I know he doesn’t like him, but that shouldn’t excuse such a dumb decision. Taking him in for questioning should’ve been done immediately. The only thing that confused me about Frances is how did she go from Eddie’s house to Anne’s on foot. She doesn’t have a symbiote and it didn’t look like she stole a car so what gives? And to be honest, I don’t see the point of Cletus giving Eddie a chance to fight. He was almost executed in prison because of him and for someone as psychotic as him, it doesn’t make sense for him to be fair. The last thing that bothers me is pretty random but I gotta get it off my chest. At one point during the chapel fight, Cletus tries to choke out Eddie with a plastic bag, but it disappears when Venom comes out. I just can’t help but wonder if he swallowed it or not. Other than that, this is still fun to watch. To wrap up, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a memorable sequel for feeling a little more organized, while also opening an unexpected door. If you’re a general fan of Marvel Comics, you’ll definitely enjoy this film like the various films before it.
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