High-Octane
Summary
A rather slapdash special effects maelstrom with constant movement, quickly drawn characterizations, and a simple storyline that a child of six can follow, Venom: Let There Be Carnage delivers exactly what it promises to, with no room for expansion, depth, or inventiveness.
Plot: Eddie Brock and the alien known as Venom living inside him face a handful of challenges, including how to get along with each other … and dealing with another creature called Carnage that lives in a serial killer.
Review: Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy, unusually playful) and his alien counterpart Venom are like a buddy / buddy sitcom gone horribly bizarre: They bicker and fight on the daily, and Brock’s main concern is keeping Venom’s outrageous hunger bottled up, which has become an ongoing gag between them. Up until now, the only people who know Brock’s secret is his ex-girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams, basically a cold fish) and her fiancé Dan (Reid Scott), but when Brock gets an opportunity to interview serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) before he’s set to be executed, Brock’s secret gets out when Kasady bites Brock on the hand, becoming infected with Venom’s DNA. A fresh alien organism brews inside Kasady, giving birth to a monstrous creation called Carnage, and when he / they bust out of prison, they head straight for the only person on earth Kasady cares about, an incarcerated woman named Frances (Naomie Harris) who has a powerful mutant ability to scream like a banshee. When Brock discovers where all of Kasady’s victims have been buried, he becomes a celebrity again, but he has no time to celebrate because Carnage is on the loose and he and Venom are the only ones who can stop them from destroying the city and causing untold destruction.
A rather slapdash special effects maelstrom with constant movement, quickly drawn characterizations, and a simple storyline that a child of six can follow, Venom: Let There Be Carnage delivers exactly what it promises to, with no room for expansion, depth, or inventiveness. It’s silly, and is precisely the sort of comic book escapism most people are likely looking for if stuff like Eternals bores them to tears. It reminded me of Men in Black II, and at 97 minutes (that’s with long credits) it has no time to waste, but by the end you feel like you’ve just consumed empty calories. Andy Serkis directed it, and I’d say this is a step back from his interesting take on The Jungle Book with his film Mowgli.
Sony will be releasing several options of Venom on home video on December 14th.
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