Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Serkis) 2021

Last week I posted my review of the first Venom film from 2018 and made it a point to follow it with the sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, this week, hoping the series would improve. Sadly, I was disappointed, despite the best efforts of cast and crew.

The sequel was set up very obviously at the end of the first film with a credits scene, something Marvel is so well known for. However, in this instance, it didn’t connect to some other character or series, but rather simply foreshadowed the obligatory sequel for films like this, regardless of the quality of the original.

Did we need another Venom movie? Probably not. Are we going to get even more after this one? Probably.
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When it comes to the character, I echo what I said for the first film that I prefer Hardy’s version of Eddie Brock/Venom to Topher Grace’s. I also appreciated the fact that Venom and Eddie became a bit more distinct in this film, with a few characters in the know addressing Venom directly, regardless of whose body he was in at the time. Michelle Williams ups her game in this film from the first despite her limited screen time.

As far as the villains, I believed less in Woody Harrelson’s Cletus Kasady/Carnage and Naomie Harris’s Shriek than I did in the first film’s version of Riot. Don’t get me wrong, I love both Harrelson and Harris as actors, but this material didn’t quite suit them, and it never seemed like they really inhabited the roles.

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And of course, I have to mention director Andy Serkis. Gollum himself has moved into the realm of directing, initially helping Peter Jackson with some second unit work on the Hobbit films, before directing full features. I love his work as an actor, but I think Serkis is still trying to find himself as a director and I would love to see him take on some smaller projects to hone that craft. Not everyone can jump right into the deep end on projects like this, and it shows.

I’m sure we’ll keep getting more offshoot films like this from Marvel. There is a credits scene here which connects this directly to SpiderMan: No Way Home but I think this part of the franchise would do well to come fully under the Kevin Feige Marvel umbrella and officially jump into the MCU.

5 out of 10