Venom: Let There Be Carnage indulges on itself for an okay experience

Come for an absurd comic book movie, stay for an amazing post-credit scene

By Collin Frazier

frazierc@findlay.edu

@Collin_53

The Spiderman franchise is probably the first comic book movie franchise most of us saw. It captured everything great about Peter Parker and his villains… at least for the first two movies. We then got Spiderman 3, and viewers were not only let down by emo Peter Parker (although over 10 years later it is hilarious), but the biggest disappointment was its portrayal of Venom. Flash-forward 11 years and we get Venom, which was an identity crisis that tried to be funny and too dark all at once. Needless to say, my expectations for Venom: Let There Be Carnage were extremely low, which may have been for the best for this movie, as it was somewhat tolerable (SERIOUS SPOILERS BELOW).

Something that people loved about the first Venom was that it ditched the dark, sinister symbiote and made the relationship between Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and Venom somewhat comical, almost reflective of an old, married couple. Personally, I wasn’t all for it, but if you loved it, you are in for a treat with this movie. The majority of their relationship picks up where it left off, but you will see some growth between the two and they realize how much they need each other. That said, the majority of the movie is aware of the silliness of this and runs away with it. While I did not love it, I respect director Andy Serkis for going along with this, it got a couple of chuckles out of me.

What I did love about this movie is stayed true to the source material of Cletus Kasady, played by Woody Harrelson. They kept the mentally unstable, unhinged, blood-thirsty serial killer Cletus Kasady from the comics and put it into this film very well. You never knew when he would lash out and kill everyone in his way, which made me appreciate Harrelson’s acting. That said, a complaint with Kasady was that he seemed too poetic for this movie. He said so many analogies and imagery that I never really cared for what he had to say during his monologues. Just give me Carnage going insane and I am happy.

Above all else, what made this movie worth going to was its post-credit scene. We see Venom and Eddie on the run after the climax of the film, where Venom discusses some of the powers his species possesses. One of which is the ability to traverse through different universes. Brock and Venom eventually end up in the same universe of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Specifically, he ends up seeing the news report from the post-credit scene of Spider-Man: Far From Home. Finally, we are going to see Venom in the MCU. Will he end up in Spider-Man: No Way Home? Will he be a villain, or anti-hero? Only time will tell, but one thing is for sure, Spider-Man’s villains will finally be portrayed the right way.

I think if my expectations were too high for this movie, I probably would have hated it, but this movie surprised me. Harrelson as Kasady was a great choice, the action scenes were actually well done, it knew exactly what it was, and the post-credit scene was probably the best one in any Marvel film in a long time. My final rating for Venom: Let There Be Carnage is 61/100.

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