Venom: Let There Be Carnage Leans into the Buddy-Picture Dynamic

There was potential in 2018’s Venom. It was clear there was something here that wasn’t as present in other Marvel and Marvel-adjacent pictures. It was the scene of Eddie Brock jumping into the restaurant lobster tank and eating live lobster. It was the comedic back-and forth between the cynical Eddie and the hungry Venom.

The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, is aware of these strengths and plays to them with gusto.

Eddie and Venom: odd couple. Courtesy Sony Pictures

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is still at it as an investigative journalist. He’s still learning to live with the alien symbiote sharing his body, even if it’s taking some getting used to. And he’s still pestered by police who don’t appreciate his work and has to wrangle in Venom’s rage before he bites off somebody’s head. Roommate ground rules have been set, but it’s not exactly going well—Venom’s diet of chocolate and chickens isn’t doing much for a monster who really wants some human brains for sustenance. When the two of them aren’t bickering, they actually make a great team, and not just because of Venom’s strength; they work together to crack murder cases and bring the killers to justice.

One of their latest cases involves the death-row inmate Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). Though Cletus speaks in cryptic passages, Eddie and Venom are keen enough to crack his code and discover more of his crimes.

Woody Harrelson as Cletus. Courtesy Sony Pictures

What they’re not as observant about is how Cletus comes into contact with the symbiote. For whatever reason, Cletus is able to ingest a portion of the black stuff and share his body with the violent alien Carnage. Looking like a version of Venom soaked with blood, this creature is far more destructive and far less agreeable. Cletus has the short-term goal of escaping death row, which Carnage will gladly help the killer with. But his long-term goal is reuniting with his love, Shriek (Naomie Harris), a woman with the power to shred ears with her voice, and that’s a romance that doesn’t really sit well with an alien symbiote whose primary weakness is sound.

While Venom and Carnage will eventually clash, as promised by all the promotional material, the best parts of the film are not the obligatory special effects battles. The camaraderie between Eddie and Venom is absolutely irresistible. The way they bicker is fast-paced and hilarious, making them one of the best odd couples of any Marvel Comics–based movie. Eddie tries to hold down his apartment and job while Venom makes ever more of a mess (though he does attempt to make Eddie some breakfast to show him affection).

The two do show some more care toward one another. When Eddie learns that his ex-girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) is getting married, Venom comforts him, in the alien’s own weird way of displaying empathy. Even Anne seems to recognize that Venom has become more of Eddie’s best friend than a parasite. So when there’s a breakup between the two, it hits both of them hard. Some things are said. Motorcycles are destroyed.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

The split between the two leads to some great scenes of their longing for one another. For Venom, he tries to seek comfort at a rave, decked out in glowing flair. But he just can’t dance away his thoughts of Eddie. (He can’t last long in other host bodies either, so, sure, there’s a survival component to their relationship as well.)

Director Andy Serkis has delivered a trimmer take on Venom than the first installment with a running time of 97 minutes. In that amount of time, he manages to stage great exchanges and some stunning visual effects shots. Unlike in the previous movie, our lead antihero is not obscured in shadows and smoke. He’s out in the open and gets to do everything from bounding across buildings to duking it out with Carnage in a church, which looks great with a handful of shots of the symbiotes against the stained glass. The editing is also pretty slick, with some alluring animated montages and clever staging of the usually boring scenes of reading letters.

Courtesy Sony Pictures

Upon the lattice of the standard superhero story in Let There Be Carnage is a better relationship comedy. The dynamic between Eddie and Venom helps this picture feel more messy and daring than just another comic book movie of (anti)hero versus villain. A handful of fans were hoping that this sequel would be rated R to allow a more violent Venom to do battle with Carnage. While it doesn’t give us a Venom with visible blood and guts in his sharp teeth, he does appear with charisma and a relationship arc that works well for such a picture. And that’s worth far more than a Venom who goes for gore.