Venom: Let There Be Carnage

The second Venom is more about digital monsters than about Hardy. Furthermore, they are two digimonsters that would look the same in a black-and-white movie. On the other hand, Venom “on his own two feet” is fun and his attendance of a party is one of the film’s best moments. The bad guys don’t arouse much fear, as their motivation is shoddy and their interactions with those around them come off as frivolous, like other things in the movie. In the final dark, overwrought digifest, I really didn’t give a damn who was throwing whom where or who was falling where or what was falling on them. Otherwise, Hardy on a motorcycle is great, and Michelle Williams... Michelle Williams! She gives the movie a much needed aesthetic element. If it wasn’t for her, I'd give Let There Be Carnage two stars. (2021-10-12)

I was a bit apprehensive about this sequel, mostly worried it would follow the same formula as the first one — and it did, almost exactly. Once again, the whole movie revolves around Tom Hardy. Venom still leaves me unsure whether I’m supposed to root for him or not, and Woody Harrelson’s villainous role feels completely unnecessary. With the first film, at least I got a few laughs, but even the humor feels lacking this time around. And don’t get me started on the overly artificial CGI. It’s like a budget version of the Marvel universe, and it shows. (2022-03-02)

Venom 2 is such a disappointment that I feel like giving it 2 stars, but that would be biased, so a neutral 3 with a bitter taste in my mouth and an exclamation point for next time. Venom was a pleasant surprise, maybe because Ruben Fleischer was in charge of it, and he was able to handle the humour (Zombieland) and the action (Gangster Squad). Unfortunately, the sequel is directed by Andy Serkis (who has only done Mowgli) and suddenly the humour and action stops working. Tom Hardy is surprisingly unlikeable in this film and I didn’t enjoy his role at all, he's not funny or interesting, he doesn't show anything in action, in short a useless, uninteresting and boring character, and Woody Harrelson, whom I generally like, also didn't show much of anything – their dialogue exchanges are uninteresting and I didn't enjoy listening to them at all, I silently remembered the dialogue from Bond, yes, a strange comparison, but when they give dialogue clashes between two great actors, let me feel the intense darkness in the air, not these childish exchanges. Humour could have been a strong point, but I only laughed once in the whole film and that was with Venom at the disco, the rest is infantile and you don’t even smile. Nobody laughed at all in the cinema, so it's not just me. The Gore is missing of course, but I counted on it. The visuals and the effects are inoffensive, but definitely not breathtaking. Shortening the film to 90 minutes hurts the the film because it practically has no story and everything is rushed. On the other hand, if ti was two hours long, I probably wouldn’t last, because Venom 2 is not very entertaining. And now about the action. There are two short action scenes that end before they even start and then a half hour finale that I won't tell you anything about because I was asleep with boredom, so I'll have to recap that sometime. Anyway, going into Venom thinking it was a comic book action flick and leaving as bored and frazzled as a two-hour Drama, I didn't expect that in the slightest. Ironically, the post-credit scene is better than the movie itself. Story 2/5, Action 3/5, Humor 2/5, Violence 0/5, Fun 3/5 Music 3/5, Visuals 4/5, Atmosphere 3/5, Suspense 2/5, Emotion 1/5, Actors 3/5. 5/10. (2021-10-16)

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. (2022-01-11)

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. (2021-10-16)