Venom: Let There Be Carnage

This movie was created just for the sake of a post-credits scene and making money... In Hollywood, you have competent and talented directors with vision, promising rising stars, ordinary artisans, and then blagging hustlers who are actually not very good at it and are hired just because they are not going to argue with the studio. Now Andy Serkis belongs to the latter group. Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a completely formulaic comic book movie that you cannot enjoy much due to the hackneyed screenplay, lackluster performances and chaotic editing. The whole thing is obviously heavily impacted by the PG-13 rating, and so many times during the movie you are left unsure as to how this or that character actually ended up, because everything is edited so "safely" that you just have no idea. Moreover, the comedy is incredibly childish. I cannot imagine that all the moviemakers involved got into it for any reason other than a paycheck. (19/10/2021)

I don't even want to get too much into this movie because I'd feel like I was kicking a disabled person. It's actually fascinating to watch a $110M piece of work that seems like every other scene was being concocted while the previous one was being filmed. An Olympics of the laziest screenwriting ("the governor of California decided to bring back the death penalty in light of these crimes" what the fuck?!). Kelly Marcel's role in Hollywood is to be given potentially problematic topics and then muddle them up in a way that doesn't offend anyone while still trying to appear superficially non-conformist. I don't know if they have no one better at Sony to do that, or if they just can't completely colonize certain topics, but nothing here holds together at all. (11/01/2022)

Venom as a pro-migrant agitator and declared bisexual is the surprising revelation of this sequel. Nevertheless, Let There Be Carnage is a tiny bit better than part one. It passes by nicely and is funny in its silly way and its running time is short. As if Serkis simply cut the boring and unfunny bits out. Some of the twists and revelations appear very farfetched and all-of-a-sudden. Stress is on the marital quarrels of the continuously weirdly acting Hardy along with Venom, and all the other things surrounding this just happen to happen, god knows how. It lacks any logic. And it would just be a waste of time to go into analysis of degradation when compared to the source material. P.S.: Harrelson spends his time strangely overacting; this role is acutely uncomfortable for him. (27/11/2021)

Venom 2 is a perfect example of a one-off action flick. Story-wise, it doesn't have much to surprise – except perhaps, if I'm getting ahead of myself, the post-credit scene – and with a relatively short running time, there's not really much room for any plot-twists (except maybe one tiny one). The film relies mainly on action, light (black-and-red) humour and the interaction between the two "aliens", which doesn't always work. The character of Frances "Banshee" Barrison was largely underused, which is a shame. A brisk, perhaps a bit too digital in places for (really) just one viewing! (17/10/2021)

After it’s release, I wondered what went so wrong that the first Venom was one of the best Marvel solo films and the second one is only 50%. The answer is simple: Andy Serkis, or proof that a different director will take the same movie into a completely different direction, and here everything is wrong. Venom's speeches are annoying cringe gibberish that will make 10 year olds laugh, the action is low, it doesn't pack a punch, the plot is practically unmoving from beginning to end, the villain and Carnage's character is brutally underused, it lacks more character portrayal (they could have played with the monster's lore and the killer's past...) and the finale isn't worth much. A watchable affair, unfortunately running at half throttle all the time and making it clear that it was made just for money and effect. Disappointing, like almost everything lately. Hopefully, at least Dune will surprise. (16/10/2021)