The first Venom film was no great genre shift in the superhero pantheon. Altogether underwhelming. No chemistry on screen. So what we have here with Let There Be Carnage, directed by Andy Serkis, is an attempt to reboot it by sharpening up the script. Developing the relationship between Eddie Brock ( Tom Hardy ) and the vicious alien Venom that inhabits him, into a variety double act of quick fire repartee. Along the lines of a bitchy bro-mance comedy. There is wit on show, but it requires better timing and pointing. But this film is too overeager to keep up it's hyper speed, to leave space for a punchline to land fully. Move on, there are heads to be eaten.
Its essentially a similar story line to the first movie only with bigger flashier set piece confrontations with snappier dialogue. As I said it moves along at a pace, it never really sags, which is good because this is the sort of film that shouldn't overstay its welcome. I have seen so many CGI animated fight scenes I am now as stone towards them. No tension or peril, they happen, they do not amaze, they overstimulate your visual senses. Put your mind to sleep, and still your heartbeat. Consequently never grabbing you emotionally, so devoid of feeling and meaning are they.
Hubby and I kept saying 'this is very silly' as if it would at some point cease being so, and reveal an as yet hidden but profound truth that was underlying its frothy insubstantiality. Much as I love seeing Hardy, an actor capable of great sensitivity and intelligent gravitas, playing a dumb ass waster built like a brickie, it really doesn't work. Eddie Brock would make more sense if he were some pigeon chested dweeb, not a very very handsome hunk who you'd forgive anything to wed. Is his ex- girlfriend blind or something?
Woody Harrelson, an actor not afraid to chew up the scenery in the exact same way he has done in every single film he's ever in, does his thing here. You know, a menacing creepier version of Shaggy from Scoobie Doo. You can't help but feel everyone is wasting their time, us included, by entertaining this dreck. But there is obviously money to be had in an empty headed film franchise, that has not even the irregular murmour of a beating heart. No matter how much they camp it up. Its just very very very stupid. It happens. Then its over. Cue Credits.
CARROT REVIEW - 3/8
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