Review: ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ – Short and sweet

At just over 90 minutes, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is minuscule compared to your usual comic book blockbuster. The film is content with keeping things brief, something that mostly works to the movie’s advantage. The action is charged, and all semblance of fat has been trimmed, but viewers might find themselves out of breath by the end of the first act.

The sequel sprints from the starting line and keeps momentum at a near-disorienting speed. It blazes through what feels like important story details and keeps you from taking stock of them, before it moves on to the next scene. Thankfully, once it’s laid down the building blocks with haste, Venom: Let There Be Carnage has a solid foundation for the main attraction.

Watching Tom Hardy argue with himself is once again a sight to behold. Venom and Eddie Brock might be joined at the hip, but their minds are far from symbiotic in this film. It turns out, an alien being with a hunger for human flesh is a less-than-ideal roommate. Especially one that you can’t ever get away from. Then again, Eddie Brock’s narcissism doesn’t make him an ideal candidate for friendship.

The movie makes you invested in the relationship between host and symbiote, much like a bickering couple in a romantic comedy. Venom: Let There Be Carnage cares more about the relationships with its characters than the overall plot. A plot that hinges on those exact relationships.

Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Cassidy is the film’s villain, a convicted serial killer who gets his own symbiote. He’s driven by his personal vendetta against Eddie Brock, all without the burden of a pesky moral compass. Watching Harrelson revel in villainy is fun, but he’s overshadowed by a genuinely off-putting Naomie Harris as Shriek, the film’s secondary foe. Still, what Harrelson lacks in charisma, the film makes up for with some gloriously excessive action when carnage lets loose.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage improves on what worked in the first film and excels where it faltered. Andy Serkis is no stranger to the necessities of making a digital character feel tactile, and that shows in his direction. The way Venom navigates the world is leaps beyond his 2018 début. While the film makes short work of its set-up, the end result is a quick and refined action-comedy that’s anchored by an ensemble that moves like a well-oiled machine.

Rating: Big Screen Watch

Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.