What’s It About
An upcoming American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Venom, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel and Tencent Pictures. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is intended to be the second film in the Sony Pictures Universe of Marvel Characters and the sequel to Venom (2018). The film is directed by Andy Serkis from a screenplay by Kelly Marcel. It stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock / Venom (while also contributing to the story with Marcel), along with Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady / Carnage. Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott, and Stephen Graham also star in supporting roles.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Right from the start, this film is already 100% better than the first one. The direction the producers/director wanted to go is a lot more defined as if follows a more comedic horror route with a Marvel PG-13 (Disney-approved) script. Venom 2 practically picks up where it left off. If you stayed around to see the post-credit scene, you would understand why it begins with Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) and his girlfriend, Frances Barrison (Shriek), who is also a significant character because the studios are trying to be as comic-book accurate as possible while still delivering an original story. After the initial reintroduction of Brock/Venom, Cletus, and Anne (Brock’s Ex), they present us with more characters to show how much has happened since the last time. Short version, Brock and Venom have a love/hate relationship. They’re lying low because of what went down in the first film. Anne has a new man, and Brock is not ok with it. Then there’s a cop whose primary reason for existence is to bring all the broken story pieces (about eleven) into one coherent story. If you’re still sitting in your seat waiting to see Carnage, he makes his first appearance at about thirty minutes into the movie. That should be right after the “here’s what has been going on since the last time” opening scenes/character introductions. The rest of the movie is pure mindless entertainment until the mindless yet entertaining final battle. The biggest downfall of Venom 2 is dealing with the cringeworthy antics of Venom. They have really changed his personality. He’s not the blood-thirsty alien all the Spiderman lovers had come to know. Now he’s a somewhat caring, needy, whiny, and overly dependant anti-hero that sounds like a 1980’s zombie when he’s begging for brains every chance he gets. Overall, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is entertaining with a few laughs but with loads of misplaced and confusing action sequences that push the limits of CGI believability, most notably when Carnage is on the screen. One last thing – the post-credit scene is the only reason a Marvel fan will sit through a movie this juvenile.
OUR RATING – A TANTRUM-THROWING 7
MEDIA
- Genre – Comic Book
- Street date
- Digital – November 23rd, 2021
- DVD/Blu-Ray – December 14th, 2021
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 1.85:1
- Sound – English: Dolby Atmos
- Subtitles – English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras
- Let There Be…Action (HD, 8 Mins.) – An EPK piece that has various cast and crew interviews from PA tours and on-set interviews with some clips of rehearsal footage. The cast and crew talk about the story and characters, and of course the action. Some of the stunts are looked at as well in a very brief way, along with some of the visual effects and set design.
- Outtakes And Bloopers (HD, 4 Mins.) – A montage of flubbed lines, missed cues, laughter, dancing, and more funny instances on set.
- Deleted Scenes (HD, 10 Mins.) – A collection of deleted and alternate sequences with some unfinished visual effects, including a longer end credit scene.
- Eddie And Venom: The Odd Couple (HD, 11 Mins.) – The cast and crew discuss the relationship between Eddie and Venom and how they enhanced the comedy and tone from the first film to this new one. There are some clips from the film and on-set footage spliced in.
- Tangled web: Easter Eggs (HD, 5 Mins.) – Easter Eggs are revealed, including the Stan Lee cameo, other MCU mentions, and locations from Marvel comics are talked about.
- Sick and Twisted: Cletus Kasady (HD, 6 Mins.) – The villain and Woody Harrelson are discussed here. The cast and crew talk about how Woody brought so much life and fun to the character.
- A Fine Romance: Cletus and Shriek (HD, 5 Mins.) – The romance between Cletus and Shriek is talked about here. It’s a great story on paper, but due to its short run time, the actual finished product didn’t explore this relationship all too well.
- Concept to Carnage (HD, 5 Mins.) – Form its concept art and comic book origins to this feature film, the energy and themes are talked about by the cast and crew.
- Select Scene Previs (HD, 9 Mins.) – A side-by-side comparison of the finished product and the concept animation are shown here in a few select scenes.
- Trailers (HD, 15 Mins.) – A trailer for the bonus features, along with other Columbia Pictures and Marvel films is shown here.