Tom Hardy in a scene from "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," from Sony Pictures.
*The following contains spoilers for "Venom: Let There Be Carnage," now in theaters. But at least it's not really a spoiler to say that Woody Harrelson serves bug-eyed chaos as only Woody Harrelson can.*
"Venom: Let There be Carnage" tells you what you're in for early on. The main character hangs perilously onto the roof of a building with one hand. With the other hand, he answers his phone and when asked if he's OK, says he's "just hanging around."
Yes, this is THAT kind of movie.
The film, a follow-up to 2018's "Venom," doesn't cement the titular Marvel Comics character as being exactly like the edgy, serious anti-hero /oftentimes villain that fans are familiar with from the Marvel comics. Instead, this is an action buddy comedy that is aware of how deeply stupid it is and just rolls with it.
Tom Hardy plays straight man to himself, portraying quasi-journalist Eddie Brock and voicing the strangely sassy alien symbiote Venom. The weird interplay from the duo in the first movie, which, as cliché as it sounds, is best described as an "Odd Couple" pairing — If Felix was a pitch-black goop monster that grows from Oscar's back — is doubled down upon here. Their comedic dynamic informs the movie's entire approach, resulting in a fun, if unabashedly ridiculous, experience that you'll probably enjoy provided you turn your brain off at the door.
At one point, they sneak off into a bathroom while a cop is interrogating Eddie, with the two loudly bickering at each other as a woman sits in the stall next to them, The woman, hearing Hardy's relatively normal if slightly shaky and mumbling American accent and the Venom growl, is both terrified and curious. There are a fair amount of decently funny moments like this sprinkled throughout.
Later, serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson, understanding the assignment and having a ball) uses the Carnage symbiote he acquires to....use a laptop to hack into a top-secret prison files?!? Because sure, why not? Don't think think too hard about it, because the film sure isn't.
My personal favorite moments of the film arrive after Eddie and Venom have a 80s sitcom-level spat and split off from each other. After Venom has drained random, innocent people of their energy by latching onto them (he's one of the good guys!), he uses another poor schmuck to stumble into the convenience store of Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu), who is aware of Venom. Venom says he needs Eddie. So Mrs. Chen cradles the head of the man Venom is possessing, and seems far more concerned about the brain-eating alien than the guy that the alien is killing. The best part is that the scene is played completely straight, which just makes it funnier.
We reach peak lunacy when Eddie's ex-wife Anne (Michelle Williams, slumming it) bursts into the convenience store looking for Venom. Turns out Venom is now possessing Mrs. Chen, and his large eyes and rows of razor-sharp teeth suddenly appear on the poor woman!
This is my favorite scene in the movie, because the film jumps not just one shark, but an entire reef at this point. The effect doesn't look good, but it's not supposed to. I am convinced that when screenwriter Kelly Marcel, who developed the story with Hardy, was typing out this scene, she just decided to embrace the madness. Even better is that Anne is completely nonplussed by this development and she just starts telling Venom that he needs to help Eddie. It's every bit as laughable as it sounds, but if you're thinking too hard about any of this — let alone by the time these terrifying alien features show up on a kind older lady — you're doing it wrong. Just go along for the ride.
It's honestly refreshing for one of these modern day interconnected superhero flicks to not take itself so seriously. The Marvel Cinematic Universe entries are often jokey, assaulting audiences with rat-a-tat quips, but because Disney is aware of how endlessly scrutinized every single frame of those films will be, there is still a certain amount of self-seriousness to them. "Let There Be Carnage," on the other hand (claw?,) is aware that it's ludicrous and doesn't care if you know it. I love the MCU catalogue, but this film's willingness to give its own trashy nature a massive bearhug is a nice change of pace. No one is attempting a deep dive into the human condition here. Also, Tom Hardy spends too much in this film talking to chickens for this movie to pretend it's "The Grapes of Wrath."
Plus director Andy Serkis, best known as an actor for his incredible motion capture work as Gollum in the "Lord of the Rings" and The Hobbit" films and as Caesar in the most recent "Planet of the Apes" trilogy, keeps things moving along at a brisk pace so nothing overstays its welcome.
(SIDENOTE: This seems like as good a time as any to mention that the priest who is seemingly forced to marry Cletus and his super-screaming girlfriend/murder accomplice Francis (Naomi Harris) is played by top-tier British performer Reece Shearsmith, who co-writes and stars in the brilliant anthology "Inside No. 9." He's given little to do here in this brief appearance and it's a waste of his tremendous abilities, but I was thrilled to see him pop up nevertheless.)
As much of a good time as "Let There Be Carnage" offers, it's not nearly as fun when it tries to set up some actual character development. The attempts to make Eddie and Cletus out to be reflections of each other, with the latter saying they're not that different, do not feel genuine in the slightest. Yeah, Eddie's a bit schlubby and he seems like a shoddy reporter but he's not comparable to Southern-fried Hannibal Lecter here.
Cletus' confession at the end that he actually just wanted Eddie's friendship is also an eye-roller. After spending the whole movie acting as if the only person he cares about at all is Francis, we're supposed to buy that this guy who had a multi-state body count BEFORE he combined with an bloodthirsty extraterrestrial beast actually just wanted a buddy this whole time, even though he hadn't been granted any kind of nuance in the film beforehand?
It will be fun to see how the shaggy, throw-anything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks energy of this series aligns with the corporate synergy of the MCU, because by the end-credits scene, Venom is plopped into the primary Marvel universe, and he's gunning for Spider-Man! It's interesting that characters who both have their own franchises will presumably face off and likely spend a fair amount of time fighting each other.
In "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice," for comparison, that movie was the first time we saw Ben Affleck's Batman, while Henry Cavill's Superman had already been established in "Man of Steel." With these versions of Spidey and Venom, audiences have already spent time with them. One can assume that any Venom appearance, if it does happen, in the upcoming "Spider-Man: No Way Home" would likely just be a cameo since that film appears to be bloated enough with characters and concepts already. Which means the wall-slinger will probably be fighting the symbiote in a third "Venom" picture.
By the time such a film would arrive, Tom Holland's interpretation of the friendly neighborhood superhero will have shown up in at least six movies (seven if you count his picture being shown in "Let There Be Carnage") so it's likely that people will be rooting more for him than Venom in the latter's own series. Then again, a third "Venom" where he fights Spider-Man will almost certainly end with them teaming up to fight some other force, so maybe it doesn't matter.
Either way, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" is a dumb movie that leans into the inherent silliness of a slime monster teaming up with a grown man in his 30s who looks like he's wearing a high school football quarterback jacket, and the film is all the better for it.
What did you think? Did you agree with me, or did you think the film was genuinely good all the way through? Did you think the movie was terrible? What did you think was going on with the cop character at the end when his eyes randomly started glowing? Let me know on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.
Staff writer Kelly Rocheleau can be reached at (315) 282-2243 or kelly.rocheleau@lee.net. Follow him on Twitter @KellyRocheleau.
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'Venom: Let There Be Carnage' knows how stupid (and fun) it is - Auburn Citizen
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