Here’s a thing; this writer loves Tom Hardy. Like, loves him. From being Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, to being Ronnie and Reggie in Legend. From Bronson, to the minimalist role in RockNRolla. From not being afraid to dream a little bigger inInception to even playing too-nice in This Means War. And if I ever get round to seeing Peaky Blinders and The Revenant, it will certainly be because of the man who (one believes) should be the next Bond.
And so, to Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the Andy Serkis directed sequel that sees Hardy reprise his role as Eddie Brock. Let There Be Carnage was released on the global front right at the start of October, but distribution hiccups meant this Sony film would drop in Nigeria at the end of it.
Despite previously expressed admiration and affinity for Hardy, it would be deceitful to proclaim the first Venom film of 2018 as great. It was probably all right, and that’s just about it. Sadly, though, the sequel’s performance is one that makes you, if anything, hanker for the first film.
Let There Be Carnage also features Woody Harrelson as Carnage, aka Cletus Kasady. Kasady is an unrepentant serial killer with a love interest (Naomie Harris as Shriek), who becomes Carnage after biting Eddie’s symbiote-laced hand and then getting a lethal injection.
But with Harrelson, this movie is more cartoonish than logical. Kasidy does bad things because ‘well, evil bad guy is here’, and little else. A lot of it is very much like watching an episode of a Venom cartoon that would be on Disney than anything real. There’s something of a relationship between Eddie and Cletus, but it is both over-familiar and thoroughly underused. At times, watching the two together almost makes you wonder if you missed something in the first film or missed a film that came before this one, aside from the tiny moment in the first film.
The use of Naomie Harris as Frances Barrison also falls on the puerile side of things. It’s like watching her play an even more cartoonishly sinister version of Tia Dalma/Calypso from the second and third Pirates of the Caribbean movies, except this time, and despite her best efforts, it’s less fun.
Add to of all that, Let There Be Carnage happens very quickly. Not fast-paced, just rather hasty. Like you’re watching a prolonged middle of a film, or an episode of a series. If you were being cynical, you’d say this movie was looking to buy 100 minutes before chucking this Venom character into the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Speaking of which, this Venom sequel does seem like an MCU imitation game. It tries to have all the comedic aspects, and the big CGI fight involving a protagonist and an antagonist with similar powers. And it crams it all in, while failing as a story.
There’s something sorely immature about the whole thing, the character is cliched for the protagonist and non-existent for everyone else, and its attempt at depth is little more than that; an attempt. Simply put; I love Tom Hardy, but there’s hardly anything about Let There Be Carnage that’s worth being affectionate about.
Comments