Venom: Let There Be Carnage

With a newly merging of Sony and Marvel for the Venom franchise, we have for you "Venom: Let There Be Carnage". This is a sequel to 2018's "Venom" which was a sensation at the box office starring Tom Hardy as the title character. Well, Hardy reprises hi role once again as Eddie Brock who embodies Venom with a new nemesis.

Venom/Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) returns to the big screen as the lethal protector, who springs into action when notorious serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) transforms into the evil Carnage. Venom is definitely one of Marvel's greatest and most complex characters. It turns out that Kasady wants a death row interview with Brock, who is an investigative reporter, so while Brock is interviewing Kasady, they end up in a scuffle and Kasady goes to bite Brock. After a while, in the middle of Kasady being executed, something comes over Kasady and he then, in front of everyone, turns into a symbiote like Venom and, of course, kills all there. 

Others to round out the cast are Naomie Harris as Frances Barrison, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, Reid Scott as Dr. Dan Lewis, Stephen Graham as Detective Mulligan, Peggy Lu as Mrs. Chen, Sian Webber as Dr. Pazzo and Michelle Greenidge as mugging victim. 

This was directed with an amazing amount of intensity and grit by Andy Serkis ("Breathe" '17, "The Ruins of Empires" (TV movie) '18, "Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle" '18) plus a video game. With all the acting experience portraying apes in the "Planet of the Apes' franchise and portraying different small machines in many sci-fi films, he has learned much about what it takes to extract the different emotions from his actors being one himself. This was certainly effective in its character development. It was adequately written by Kelly Marcel ("Saving Mr. Banks" '18, "Fifty Shades of Grey" '15, "Venom" '18, "Cruella" (story) '21) plus TV, based on a story by Hardy and Marcel. This was a thrilling, action-packed, explosive film--that one would expect considering the franchise, however, the only difference between this and the original, is that there is an added symbiote in this sequel which, of course, lives up to its name which is Carnage. Looked like a juicy and hammy baddie role for Harrelson that we've seen before, i.e. Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers", so I'm sure he had fun with it. And, as one would expect, the visual effects created by Double Negative, Framestore and Image Engine were seamless and amazing. 

One aspect of this film was that it actually cut-to-the-chase. It being only 101 minutes, the flow was rapid, but considering the intensity of this, cutting to the chase helped it. It's just a film that was a lot like its original. Maybe, the next installment, which there will be, will be a bit more fresh. Stay until the credits go by at films' end. This will be a bit surprising. If you want to see it up close and personal, it's also shown in an IMAX format as well. 

Out of 4 Stars: 2,5                                            Rated: PG-13                                                   101mins.