Title: Venom: Let There Be Carnage
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Andy Serkis
Starring: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams
Runtime: 1 hr 29 mins

What It Is: Eddie Brock (Hardy) and our friendly neighborhood symbiote Venom (also Hardy) are back. This time Eddie has the scoop on death row prisoner Cletus Kasady (Harrelson) who will ONLY speak to Eddie about where his last few victims were buried. During the brief interaction, Eddie gets bitten by Cletus. This transfers a bit of Venom’s symbiote over to Cletus. Being their nature the symbiote reacts differently to Cletus DNA. Instead of taking on traits similar to Eddie, it becomes a murderous monster hellbent on revenge and choosing, of course, Carnage as both its name and method.

What We Think: This film is a lot better than the first one. That does not say much as the first Venom is a complete pile of dog crap. It’s clearly a better-directed film even if the script is around the same shady neighborhood as the first. Serkis does a job of making it clear that he gets what these films are. They’re schlocky fun. They aren’t meant to be like Spideys films. Hardy is once again alright. Harrelson is chewing scenery in such a way that he’s very fun as Cletus. Naomi Harris is in a completely different film and her character for most of the film is really…disjointed. That’s really not her fault. That’s more on Serkis. That might be the film’s biggest issue. How Serkis wrangled all the weirdness. While cinematically he directs this well he isn’t able to steer the nonsensical story and weird screenplay.

Our Grade: C+, A definite improvement in almost every term one can improve. That said the script issues and dodgy CGI are the only mistakes that hurt this. Sadly those are two really important parts of any movie of this ilk. Moreover, the nature of the film also doesn’t lend itself to being enjoyable a second time…which is sort of where superhero films make their real money. Maybe don’t rush out to rent this one. Like if you really want to see it go ahead but if you’re on the fence…MEH.