Watching the sequel to the shockingly successful “Venom” is like watching a screensaver. Sure, there’s a lot of activity and colors, but at the end of it, nothing has actually happened; and then you move on to the next thing. This schlocky follow up to the goofy “Venom” leans more heavily in to the mid-nineties silliness mixing a buddy action comedy with a body horror film. Normally that could be a formula for success, but—again: screensaver.
In this follow up to “Venom,” we follow Eddie Brock who is now living with his alien symbiote friend Venom. Broken up with his girlfriend from the previous film, he garners the fascination of a vicious serial killer known as Cletus Cassidy. During a final meeting with Cletus, the latter manages to absorb some of the symbiote, spawning the off spring of Venom known merely as Carnage. Now even more powerful than Venom, they have to stop Carnage before he… gets married or something.
“Let There Be Carnage” is ninety minutes of a whole lot of nothing. There’s not a whole lot of narrative or events that occur, and everything is still pretty much the same way we left it after “Venom” when all is said and done. The writers basically embrace the “Lethal Protector” series more than “Spider-Man” series. But now with Carnage essentially being brought in to only the second film of the franchise, there’s basically nowhere left to go but to you-know-who. The writers have a big obstacle ahead of them if they choose to turn Venom in to a bonafide villain, or some goofy anti-hero who hates Spider-Man for some particular reason.
The dynamic between Eddie and Venom is essentially the same with some injected romantic overtones between the pair. While that may be a bit unusual for newer fans, this is old ground for the Venom series. That doesn’t amount to better entertainment or anything more interesting, sadly. Woody Harrelson is basically channeling Mickey Knox as Cletus Cassidy, while Carnage is shockingly slim on the characterization. At least we understand Venom, here Carnage is reduced to something of a vague nemesis that we’re told is immensely powerful but still feels like a stock villain in the end.
For what it’s worth, Naomie Harris is fun as the villain Shriek, while Tom Hardy seems to be having a good time returning as Brock. Even with Andy Serkis directing, though, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is a lousy, teious, genre confused mess. Venom deserved so much better than what Sony is doling out.