‘Venom’ Sequel Delivers Tense Action and Zany Humor

The 2018 flick ‘Venom’ was the first entry of Sony’s connected universe of ‘Spider-Man’ characters. Despite the first movie getting heavily mixed reviews, ‘Venom’ became a huge hit and audiences loved it.

Now, after numerous delays due to the major release date shuffling, Venom makes his return to the big screen. And this time, he brings more action, more craziness and more zany humor.

In the Sony/Columbia presentation of ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage,’ Eddie Brock is still struggling to co-exist with the shape-shifting extraterrestrial Venom.

When deranged serial killer Cletus Kasady also becomes host to an alien symbiote, Brock and Venom must put aside their differences to stop his reign of terror.

The anticipated sequel to ‘Venom’ really knocks it out of the park and does a great job keeping things interesting and entertaining. ‘Venom 2’ really delivers on the incredible action and the visual effects are really awesome.

In between all of the action-packed symbiote moments, there are quite a few humorous moments, primarily between Eddie Brock and Venom. With some of their bickering, they’re almost like a twisted version of ‘The Odd Couple.’ There is one sequence in the movie that these two characters fought so much it was almost like watching a nasty break up - which these scene got most of the audience laughing the most at the showing I attended.

Woody Harrelson also does a good job as the movie’s main villain Cletus Kasady/Carnage. All of his scenes can get quite intense and his performance makes Kasady/Carnage a truly memorable character. The action sequences with Venom and Carnage are really entertaining and the whole movie is really fast-paced.

Overall, ‘Let There Be Carnage’ is a really fun follow-up to the 2018 movie. There is lots of great action, more of the crazy humor from the first movie, and a few hints scattered about where the franchise can go next!

And, make sure to wait for the mid-credit scene that’s completely unexpected and changes everything for this franchise.

The cat: Tom Hardy (Capone; Venom) as Eddie Brock/Venom; Woody Harrelson (Netflix’s Kate) as Cletus Kasady/Carnage; Michelle Williams (After the Wedding) as Anne Weying; Naomie Harris (No Time to Die) as Frances Barrison/Shriek; Reid Scott (Black and Blue) as Dr. Dan Scott; Stephen Graham (Greyhound) as Detective Mulligan and Peggy Lu (Netflix’s Always Be My Maybe) as Mrs. Chen.

‘Let There Be Carnage’ is written by Kelly Marcel (Venom; Fifty Shades of Grey) and directed by Andy Serkis (Netflix’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle; Breathe).

During the long development of 2018s ‘Venom,’ the character Carnage was expected to appear as an antagonist. But, during pre-production on that film, the creative team decided not to include the character so they could focus on introducing Brock and Venom. The Carnage character was saved for a mid-credit scene to lead into this sequel.

The ‘Venom’ sequel is primarily inspired by the comic book story arc ‘Maximum Carnage’ and animated series story arc ‘The Venom Saga.’ The creative team of this sequel are already getting ideas started for the eventual third movie.

The movie has over-performed since its opening weekend and has grossed $141.7 million domestically as of October 10.

‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some strong language, disturbing material and suggestive references and has a running time of 97 minutes.