Venom: Let There Be Carnage - Cheap Thoughts

There’s a level of respect Venom: Let There Be Carnage has earned. The original Venom film is – to put it eloquently – an on-fire garbage can, and yet it was the exact right on-fire garbage can for a lot of people. It was messy and silly but also comedic and violent, and even for some, kind of sexy (Lots of people wanna fuck Venom, we can’t escape it). This of course only happened due to a case of too many cooks in the kitchen and no one having a clear vision of what they wanted Venom to be. Now that Sony have a clearly defined demographic they want to shoot for, they rather than try to course correct lean into the fire and the joyous sexy mess it is.

Let There Be Carnage is at the end of the day the story of two couples going to war with each other, and I mean that in the sense that they are far more blunt on the relationship status of Venom and Eddie Brock. Our lovebirds did not get their happily ever after yet as we see them fight, struggle to compromise and even temporarily separate due to their arguments. Venom himself even going on a drunken bender, finding himself in a gay bar where he literally says he is “coming out of the closet”. This film is not subtle nor should it be. This is another level of respect the film earns, while it is not the ideal representation it is certainly…a different kind and it at the very least is very blunt in its Queer Coding of the dual protagonists. Unlike it’s older cousin the MCU who is so desperately wants to be a part of and yet that is a franchise so watered down and unwilling to commit to an image or theme for the sake of consistency both internally and externally that its first openly queer character was an unnamed cameo from the director followed by a vague non-committal suggestion that Loki might also be queer in an easy to edit around conversation for internationally bigoted markets. Venom is at least blunt about it, which is why it earns respect, not praise necessarily.

Not to say that alone saves the film, it is still a sloppy mess, regardless of intentional or not, the adjective of choice is still there. Particularly with the fight scenes which offers vague rules of powers or damage to the two symbiotes of blobby goo stabbing each other with no clear indication who’s winning or how. At least this time round it’s a black blob vs a red blob so I can for the most part tell who is who. Carnage himself lacks his trademark hyperactive extroverted psychopathy that makes him an entertaining character, which seems bizarre that this film thought that might have been too silly. Instead, he is simply a big red blobby thing that goes around killing. At a brisk 97 minutes the film certainly moves at a brisk enough pace, enough to keep you entertained without overstaying it’s welcome, yet perhaps too fast and no character arc feels like it moves at a natural pace, and the answer doesn’t have to be make the film longer, just alter the scenes chosen, Stephen Graham’s character for example is mostly superfluous, as enjoyable as he is as an actor to see appear, he is very unnecessary.

The Venom Franchise has solidified itself as this trash fire of a series and more power to it, it knows what it is and tries to make sure everyone is having a good time. If you weren’t a fan of the first one you won’t care for this, but if you enjoyed the messy nature of the original, this one is all that and more.

-Danny