Is 'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' So Bad It's Good, Or Is It Just Bad? This Is What Critics Are Saying
The 2018 "Venom" movie was known for its weirdness and outlandishness. Does its sequel "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" continue on with that merrily nonsensical tradition or is it too incomprehensible for its own good? Here's what critics are saying about the movie.
'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' Focuses On The Deepened Relationship Between Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock And Venom
It ["Let There Be Carnage"] picks up a year after the original left off with Venom and Eddie Brock (Hardy) having come to an uneasy agreement. They live together in secret, but Venom can't kill people, so while they have superhero potential, they aren't really using it. As a result, things are tense and certainly still awkward. Their situation takes a turn though when serial killer Cletus Kassidy (Woody Harrelson) chooses the freelance journalist for an exclusive story. After some back and forth, Cletus bites Eddie, extracting a bit of Venom, which turns him into the villainous Carnage.
[Gizmodo]
Though the big tease in the end credits of the first movie was that Eddie/Venom would next be up against Cletus Kasady/Carnage, in reality, a lot of "Let There Be Carnage" is Eddie and Venom bickering at one another about why Venom can't just go out and eat everyone in sight. It leads to Eddie and Venom getting into a big fight and Venom leaving Eddie's body and setting out on its own […] I never thought I'd get "The Odd Couple" out of a Marvel movie, but here it is.
"Let There Be Carnage" thrives as a couples movie: Not only do Dan and Anne fortify their mutual love, Brock and Venom deal with their own lovers' squabbles. No, the pair aren't officially in a romantic relationship. But this movie is very aware of the queer subtext written into "Venom" — sometimes too aware in bits of on-the-nose dialogue.
And If You Liked The First Movie, You'll Likely Gobble Up 'Let There Be Carnage'
It's really simple. If you were a fan of the original "Venom," you are probably going to enjoy "Venom: Let There Be Carnage." Everything that worked about the first Sony/Marvel movie — the offbeat humor, the sultry special effects, the intense characters — is all back in full force in the sequel. However, for the most part, everything that didn't work is also back, so your personal feelings on the original are a very good indicator of how you'll feel about this one.
[Gizmodo]
Fans of Fleischer's feature ["Venom"]will not be at all disappointed by Andy Serkis' faithful followup, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," which sticks to the formula of the first — that formula being, of course, "let star Tom Hardy do whatever he wants, even better if that somehow involves crustaceans" — while also inching ever closer to putting the "lethal protector" into a familiar box.
Though The Onslaught Of CGI Doesn't Always Work
Penned by star Tom Hardy and longtime collaborator Kelly Marcel, the film does develop the chemistry between the titular alien and the human he's forced to inhabit while inside Earth's atmosphere. But the distinctiveness of this buddy-movie bond is often drowned out by giant set pieces of CG mayhem that feel exactly like those found in the good guys' movies. Though it will please most fans of the 2018 first installment, "Carnage" proves that superhero fatigue applies to nonheroes as well.
While the narrative is enjoyable, the visuals in "Let There Be Carnage" are as inky as Venom. It's nearly impossible to follow any of the fight sequences. Cletus' escape from prison, for instance, is a swirling mess of CGI junk. If you squint hard enough, maybe you can spot Carnage's red jagged symbiote arm slashing humans to death. But more likely, the serrated frames will feel like a disappointing appetizer in place of a filling main course. It's a major flaw in an altogether enjoyable picture that's so off-the-wall it features a heartbroken Venom delivering a pro-immigration speech at a costume party rave.
Yes, there are battles — all of them exponentially less interesting than a twitch of Hardy's eyebrow. "Let There Be Carnage" flourishes in high-energy moments and feeds off low expectations; it's the mold in the Avengers' shower.
And The Writing Doesn't Always Stick The Landing
So many other movies, especially superhero movies, would stop to take time to explain certain things like, "Why is a red symbiote more dangerous?" and "Why does Carnage want to kill Venom?" and "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" could not care less about answering these questions. The film moves at a breakneck speed with little interest in the "why" of it all and instead resolves to have fun at all costs.
[Collider]
Kelly Marcel's script feels like she was tasked with taking dictation on a square-one spitball session, where the attitude must have been "there's no such thing as a bad idea," so long as all ideas were in service of getting Venom to square off against his blood-red adversary, serial killer Cletus Kasady[.]
[Variety]
Serkis and his team put a lot of story threads and conflicts at a very rapid pace, never leaving the audience disinterested or bored. Sometimes this works, such as the scenes between Hardy and Venom, but other times it's a little less cohesive or believable, like the love story between Cletus and Shriek. All throughout the film, humor and action are dispersed in almost equal amounts which, like the narrative, can be largely hit or miss.
[Gizmodo]
TL; DR
Yes, most of it makes no sense. Yes, the writing is awful. Yes, it looks like Michelle Williams has no clue what movie she's in (she returns as Eddie's forming fling, Anne Weying). But sitting in a dark theater with strangers laughing at whatever this is on screen — it just seems to work. It also doesn't hurt that the movie has a lightning-paced 90-minute run time.
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