Venom: Let There Be Carnage: Movie Review

Cast: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Naomie Harris, Michelle Williams, Stephen Graham

Director: Andy Serkis

There's an anarchic feel to the Venom sequel, as Tom Hardy once again lets loose in the dual role as bumbling reporter Eddie Brock and alien symbiote Venom.

This time around, Brock's looking to reignite his career as local police try desperately to find the victims of serial killer Cletus Kasady (Harrelson, in a scene-chewing turn). When Kasady grants Brock an audience from on death row, Brock and Venom inadvertently infect Kasady and help him escape.

Swearing vengeance on those who wronged him, Kasady begins wreaking carnage on the city as Brock and Venom squabble over their own future.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage promises a lot, but really delivers little more than a toothless time that could have been much, much more.

Essentially a take on abusive relationships all round from Brock and Venom to Kasady and his long lost love (Harris, in a relatively wasted role), Serkis's relatively frenetic take on the Venom saga ends up in the usual CGI-muddled mess of mayhem that's nothing new or exceptional. (With parts of the resolution feeling like a repeat of both Venom and Spider-Man lore).

But there are some bravura touches.

From a stunning animation that reveals Kasady's abused past at a reform school, to Hardy's all-in performance as both Venom and Brock, there are moments that stand aloft in this occasionally loose movie. 

Certainly though, Venom appears more as a comedic foil than a dramatic necessity to Brock's personality, but sequences where he is his own beast, a petulant child who's sulking at how he's been treated are more worthy of the viewer's time than the final muddling mess of a denouement.

Ultimately, where Venom: Let There Be Carnage triumphs is in the central relationship between Brock and the symbiote. Hardy's physicality, range of tics, and vocal breadth make it a fascinating relationship to explore - and more than make up for the rest of Venom: Let There Be Carnage's mediocre execution.