Director: Andy Serkis
Writers: Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy, based on the character created by Todd McFarlane and David Michelinie
Starring: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris
Eddie Brock’s (Tom Hardy) life hasn’t really improved since last we met him, but an interview with serial killer Cletus Kassady (Woody Harrelson) offers him a chance to change that. However, that chance has its own danger, as Kassady becomes the host for a new symbiote. One with a goal to match his name: Carnage.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage comes in at a tight 97 minutes, and it really does feel taut. This should be a compliment as a lot of blockbusters do feel bloated and this makes a concerted effort to swing in the other direction, but it feels like an overcorrection. Instead of being lean, it is emaciated. The editing has cut this film to the bone, leaving only a perfunctory outline of a plot that hurtles from one plot point to the next. The comedy element is the only aspect of the movie that is allowed to breathe and develop, and is therefore the most successful, the rest feels rote. Therefore Serkis’s direction comes across as workmanlike rather than a true celebration of the character.
Yet there’s still a lot of fun to be had here, and that is due to Hardy. He really has engaged with the character and this over-the-top Odd Couple story, and it pays off. The interplay between parasite and host as both try to curtail the worst excesses of the other is genuinely hilarious. Add to this that it manages to lampshade some of the most extreme ’90s elements of the character, and it manages to turn Venom more into a lovable loser trying to find acceptance rather than the edgy, dark creation that Todd McFarlane initially intended, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage does provide a lot of laughs without making the character a complete parody of the comic version.
Carnage is less successfully explored, though, despite getting more of a backstory to his romance with Shriek (Naomie Harris), and a rather succinct retelling of his origins (with a few minor tweaks). Here Harrelson seems to be walking through the role, merely doing a watered-down retelling of his Natural Born Killers character. As an actor he has enough natural charisma to make it work, but it’s lazy and disappointing from such a talented performer.
If this film was released a decade or two earlier we’d probably be singing its praises, but as it stands now it’s just standard fare, edited to within an inch of its life and more than a little dated. At least it is entertaining thanks to Tom Hardy’s grasp of the character, and may well be memorable, even if that is for the first mention of the word mutant in an MCU adjacent film.
