Venom: Let There Be Carnage Review: More Noise, Less Bite

Reflecting on the first Venom film, the primary critique often centered on its sluggish start and the desire for more screen time featuring Tom Hardy fully embracing the chaotic symbiote. The potential for a truly unmissable cult classic felt hindered by excessive setup. If only the filmmakers trimmed the fat, got straight to the action, and amplified the Hardy-Venom dynamic – that was the movie many desperately wanted. The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, seemed poised to deliver exactly that. Be careful what you wish for.

This follow-up dives headfirst into the odd-couple relationship between Eddie Brock and his alien parasite, Venom. The lengthy exposition is gone, and the entire film clocks in at a brisk 90 minutes. Yet, despite addressing the pacing issues of its predecessor, why does this installment fall so flat?

Overcorrection: From Horror to Rom-Com?

The core problem lies in a drastic overcorrection. While the original Venom blended grim body horror elements with Hardy’s broad, sometimes silly, performance, Venom: Let There Be Carnage leans almost entirely into being a romantic comedy between Eddie and Venom. Their screen time is dominated by squabbles over living arrangements and Venom’s dietary preferences (brains, primarily). They even contemplate a trial separation. While the first film struggled with convoluted subplots involving the Life Foundation, this sequel strips the narrative down so aggressively that fundamental plot points remain unexplained, and key supporting characters are sidelined for significant portions of the runtime.

Carnage Arrives Late and Confused

Even the titular villain, Carnage, feels like an afterthought for much of the film. Initially, we only see Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), a serial killer fixated on Eddie Brock for reasons the movie never clarifies – Cletus is unaware Eddie hosts Venom. Despite granting Eddie exclusive interviews from prison, Cletus becomes enraged when Eddie (aided by Venom’s insight) locates his victims’ bodies. This baffling reaction sets the stage for Carnage’s eventual emergence after an encounter between Cletus and Eddie.

Venom and Carnage facing off in a chaotic scene from Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Once unleashed, Carnage, a supposedly deadlier symbiote, helps Cletus escape and reunite with his long-lost love, Shriek (Naomie Harris). Shriek possesses devastating sonic scream abilities and has been locked away for years. This volatile pair then targets Eddie by kidnapping his ex-fiancée, Anne (Michelle Williams). The plot mechanics raise numerous questions that the film shows little interest in answering: Why does Venom suddenly reproduce asexually to create Carnage? Why does Carnage, who refers to Venom as his “father,” immediately want to kill him? Why is Carnage depicted as significantly stronger? How does Cletus’ physical body fit within the symbiote suit when Carnage is attacked? The movie breezes past these points, focusing instead on relentless Eddie and Venom banter.

The Venom symbiote looms large, highlighting the central Eddie Brock relationship dynamic in Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Some of their arguments offer fleeting amusement, but they quickly become repetitive: Venom wants to eat brains, Eddie forbids it, Venom calls Eddie a loser, Eddie denies it, Venom wrecks their apartment. A scene where Venom crashes a rave and delivers a surprisingly earnest speech about tolerance offers a brief change of pace, but it underscores the film’s tonal inconsistency rather than enriching the narrative.

Action Scenes: A Muddled Mess

One unfortunate similarity Venom: Let There Be Carnage shares with its predecessor is the incomprehensible action choreography. The first film’s climactic battle was likened to “two sentient puddles fighting in the middle of a monsoon during a blackout.” Somehow, under the direction of Andy Serkis, the sequel manages to look even worse. The final confrontation inside a dimly lit church is so visually chaotic and poorly staged that crucial moments become unintelligible.

The PG-13 Dilemma

It’s plausible that the visual incoherence stems from attempts to secure a PG-13 rating. Scenes might have been heavily cut or obscured to avoid excessive gore. However, this raises a fundamental question: why aim for a PG-13 rating with characters like Venom and, especially, Carnage? Carnage is defined by his sadistic violence, manifesting blades and axes from his body to maim and kill. A film centered on such a character, constrained by rating limitations that prevent showcasing his true nature, feels inherently compromised. If you can’t commit to the characters’ core attributes, perhaps the movie shouldn’t be made.

Lingering Questions and Nitpicks

Beyond the major flaws, several smaller issues nag:

• The opening flashback to Cletus and Shriek’s youth in 1996 features teenage actors inexplicably voiced by the much older Woody Harrelson and Naomie Harris. Harrelson was already a well-established adult actor by 1996.
• The film borrows heavily, perhaps unintentionally, from Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, particularly the hero contemplating abandoning his alter ego due to conflicts with his personal life and romantic pursuits.
• Eddie’s lingering affection for Anne, who is now engaged to Dan (Reid Scott), is theoretically a major emotional driver. Yet, Dan is completely absent for the first hour before abruptly becoming crucial in the final act, suggesting significant cuts might have occurred. #ReleaseTheDanCut, anyone?
• While Sony successfully launched Venom without Spider-Man, his absence is more palpable here. Carnage works best as a dark foil to Spider-Man – representing power without responsibility. Without Spidey, the conflict devolves into two violent entities trying to out-maniac each other, which quickly wears thin.

Conclusion: All Sound and Fury, Signifying Little

Ultimately, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a victim of its own reactive filmmaking. In attempting to fix the first movie’s flaws – primarily pacing and a lack of the central duo – it swings too far, sacrificing plot coherence, character depth, and visual clarity. The result is a frantic, often nonsensical rush that leans too heavily on repetitive bickering, features an underdeveloped antagonist, and delivers some of the murkiest action sequences in recent memory. Despite doubling down on the elements fans seemingly wanted more of, the film offers diminishing returns, leaving viewers with more questions than satisfaction and a sense that this particular symbiote saga has lost its bite.