Reaction & Review | Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Welcome, one and all, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Yes, guys, it is the third annual "Tales of the Longbox" marathon, where I take a look at two months worth of comic book related movies. And we're gonna kick things off with a movie that came out in 2021. That movie is "Venom: Let There Be Carnage".

Now, for those of you that are new here, about a couple of years ago, I reviewed "Venom", the predecessor to this movie. And for the most part, I wound up really enjoying it. I thought it was a pretty decent origin story for Eddie Brock, the humor was pretty good, yet not overly forced unlike a majority of the fucking MCU movies. And the special effects were pretty good, save for Riot, who basically looked like a shitty recolor of Venom. But aside from that, I still wound up enjoying "Venom" regardless.

And I also stated way back in my review for that movie that if I ended up liking it, then I would be all in on checking out it's sequel. Well, 3 years later, we got that sequel, and I finally get to cover it for this series. The one thing I do know about it is that it features Carnage. And that was pretty much teased all the way back during the post credits for "Venom". So if you're someone who never saw "Venom", and you didn't see the post credits scene where Eddie Brock was going to interrogate Cletus Kasady, well then that's why Carnage is in this movie.

There is one other thing that I do need to touch upon before I start watching this movie. It's a REALLY stupid point that I'm gonna be mentioning here, and I still somehow remember it. You see, weeks before this movie was released in theaters, people bitched about the fact that it was gonna be rated PG-13. Why? Well, one response that I remembered hearing was that since Carnage was in this movie, it needed to be "dark", "edgy", and have tons of blood in it. And since Cletus's backstory was incredibly messed up, this movie needed that R rating so badly. And without that R rating, it was going to suck balls because of that fact. Which is funny, because I happened to remember watching the 1995 "Mortal Kombat" film, which was also rated PG-13, and it still wound up being a really solid video game movie. Now, could it have benefited from having blood? Most certainly. However, what's even funnier is that it's sequel, "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, WAS rated R, and it wound up being almost complete shit in the process. So, make of that what you will.

So anyway, setting aside that completely trivial matter, I'm really looking forward to watching this movie. I'm hoping that it's gonna be as good if not better than "Venom". I don't know if it's gonna end up being that way, but I am gonna find out momentarily. So the only thing left for me to do at this point, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Venom: Let There Be Carnage".

11 minutes later

Well, guys, I'm learning something new today. I'm learning that Venom is a very talented artist. I would've never known that, honestly. But actually seeing his artistic skills in action is actually kinda cool. I'm a little bit impressed by that.

12 minutes later

Guys, I am gonna have to say this. Venom's dialogue is, at least, so far...a little bit shit. I can see that this movie is trying to retain some of the humor that was in the first movie. And while some of it is kinda amusing, it's not as funny as I was hoping for it to be. I am hoping that they dial back on some of Venom's goofy dialogue a bit. Because right now, it's beginning to get a little old.

15 minutes later

Well, guys, I think I can officially say that Carnage looks fucking awesome in this movie. And he's also being quite a murderous badass, as well. I'm hoping that this is a good sign of things to come for this movie.

9 minutes later

You know, guys, there's just something ridiculously funny about Venom just hanging out at this nightclub. I don't know what it is exactly, but the fact that he's wearing glow-up necklaces and people are thinking that he's just a costume is actually some of the funniest bits in this entire movie. And I'm actually kinda loving it.

14 minutes later

OK, this is admittedly a little bit creepy to see Venom's eyes through a regular person's eyes. I will say that the effects for it look pretty cool. But still, it does look a little bit unsettling.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Venom: Let There Be Carnage". And much like the first movie, it ends with some pretty bad hip-hop music. Yeah...I'm just gonna shut this movie off now...OK. So, what to start with first? Well, I guess I can start by answering this question first. Is this movie better than the first one? No. This thing is definitely not as good as the first "Venom" movie was. Now, I don't want anyone taking that as me saying that this movie sucks. Because I'm gonna tell you, guys, this movie is still pretty good, and I did get some enjoyment out of it. However, I don't think this thing is as strongly written as the first movie was, but I'll get into all that in a bit.

I actually want to address something first. Because I feel like what I'm about to say is gonna take some precedence going into this review. Now, I briefly touched upon this way back in my review for "Iron Man 2", but I feel like I need to expand upon this. You see, a lot of people who are die-hard fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they will take whatever new movie comes out within that Cinematic Universe, and put them on a pedestal by saying that 'This is best Marvel movie to date'. And this is a repeated cycle that they've been doing since the days of "The Avengers", where each new movie, to them, is going to be absolutely amazing...and then they will forget about it when the next movie comes out. Basically, die-hard fans of the MCU will always set their expectations incredibly high for these movies, because if it doesn't have Marvel Studios name plastered on it, then, to them, it's most likely going to suck. And this is where the "Venom" movies come in. Because if you're a die-hard fan or fanboy of the MCU, and if you're expecting both of these movies to have the same quality that the MCU movies supposedly have, then you are going to be extremely disappointed. Because it's really unfair to compare these movies to whatever gets churned out in the MCU, mostly because these weren't made by Marvel Studios, they were put out by Sony. So these movies have to be taken by their own standard. To me, guys, I would consider both "Venom" movies to be mindless popcorn flicks. Where it's not trying to take itself too seriously, and it's just there to be mindless fun. I would say that both of these movies would be in the same line of popcorn flicks such as the "Ghost Rider" movies, or the Michael Bay "Transformers" films. So if you are able to go into these movies with that kind of mindset, then you are going to absolutely adore these movies. Mind you, this movie does have it's problems, but I'll get into that eventually. However, I just wanted to get that out of the way, because it was something that's been on my mind while I was watching this movie.

Anyway, let's finally talk about the film itself, shall we? Let's talk about "Venom: Let There Be Carnage". And I'm gonna start off, as usual, by talking about the writing. The writing here is mostly decent. That being said, I do want to talk about the biggest problem that this movie has with it's writing. I hinted at it earlier, but it does involve the movie's humor. And it's mostly around the first 20-25 minutes where we see Brock and Venom butting heads with each other, both verbally and physically. And throughout this exchange, Venom's dialogue was mostly a bit too goofy, even for me. It really kinda felt like the humor from Venom was a bit forced, and I wasn't really a huge fan of it. Especially when you consider that the first movie handled it's humor better. Mind you now, the first movie's humor wasn't laugh out loud funny, but what made the humor in the first movie work was that, while it was still goofy, a lot of it felt really balanced. Where it had enough breathing space to balance both the seriousness and the humor at the same time. This movie, however, seems to be leaning towards being a bit more goofy rather than serious. But I will say that after the first 20-25 minutes goes by, the humor is mostly toned down, even if it does slightly lean more towards humor. However, the stuff involving Brock and Venom felt like a stupid parody of a rom-com. And that, to me, was kinda shit, and the dialogue from Venom, like I just said, didn't really help things either. The best part of the humor, for me anyway, was when Venom was at this nightclub. It really was some of the funniest shit I'd seen in this entire movie. So I will say that while the humor here is certainly a downgrade, it still does have it's moments, and the nightclub scene certainly solidified that.

One huge positive I can say about this movie is that the pacing is damn near great. Because if you'll recall my review of the first "Venom" movie, I felt like the pacing on it was a little bit slow. Mostly because Venom doesn't show up until much later on in the movie. This movie, on the other hand, nearly speeds on by. At almost no point does this movie feel like it's dragging it's own feet. So it's a pretty easy watch to get through. Our characters here are mostly developed really well, again, minus the first 20-25 minutes involving Brock and Venom. The stuff involving Cletus and Carnage, however, is great. Just about every scene involving them causing mountains of destruction is fucking fantastic, and it's definitely some of best parts in this entire movie. That being said, there are a couple of other issues that I noticed. Mostly minor stuff, but still enough to make mention of. Firstly, even though the Venom nightclub scene was really funny, I couldn't help but notice something that should've set Venom off really quickly. He's at a nightclub where there's always loud music going on. Wouldn't that technically hurt Venom since symbiotes are prone to loud noises? I mean, at one point, Venom was walking up the stage, and the music that was blaring from the sound systems should've set Venom off and scared him away. But for some reason, it didn't. And that, to me, was a little bit of a strange hiccup that I noticed. Another thing that seemed kinda under-developed was Cletus's love interest Francis, AKA Shriek. Her character in this movie is ridiculously bland. I mean, sure, we get to see how she and Cletus first met, but we don't really know that much about her. We don't really know how or when she first got her powers. And I felt like that was a bit of a missed opportunity to explore more of her backstory. I can also say that, while I do think the pacing is fantastic, the ending fight between Venom and Carnage felt like it started to drag a bit. However, the latter is a very minor nitpick, and I still got through it rather easily.

So overall, I can say that the writing here is decent. However, when compared to the first movie, it definitely falters a bit thanks to some of it's questionable humor. However, if you're able to look past that 20-25 minutes, the rest of the movie is still a rather easy time to get through. And I still did have quite a bit of fun with this movie myself. So with all that being said, let's get into the acting. For the most part, the acting here is pretty good. I will say that, at first, I wasn't really convinced with Woody Harrelson's performance as Cletus. I felt like he was kinda just hamming it up to sound like he had a southern accent. But as the movie went on, he actually did get better. And he sounded more convincing with his southern accent. The rest of the cast here did pretty good, too. I didn't really notice anything odd with Tom Hardy's performance. In fact, I would say that his acting in this thing is just as good as it was in the first movie. So yeah, overall, the acting here is pretty good. It's not amazing, but it's still pretty good for what it is.

Speaking of which, the special effects are also pretty good, too. The CG here is mostly on par with the first movie. And to some people, that can be seen as either a good thing or a bad thing. And the reason why I say that is because most people who saw the first movie would end up saying that the CG looked rather dated. I, personally, thought that the CG looked really good, minus the recoloring on Riot. Mind you, the CG wasn't amazing by any stretch of the matter, but it was still pretty good for what they had to work with. And this movie is no exception. However, I will say that if you didn't like the CG from the first movie, then chances are that you're probably gonna end up avoiding this one as well, because it has, pretty much, the same CG effects that were present from the first movie. But like I said, I really liked the CG from the first movie, so I got into this second movie with no problems on how it looked.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting here is lit pretty well. The sound-mix is mixed perfectly fine. The score here is nothing to really write home about. And I was gonna say the same thing about the soundtrack...at least until I heard the bullshit that passes itself off as hip-hop playing during the ending credits, and I thought it really sucked. So, I guess I can count music here as a slight negative thanks to that one song.

Overall, guys, when all is said done, can I recommend "Venom: Let There Be Carnage"? I can, but on two conditions. The first one being that you've seen the first "Venom" movie and you really enjoyed it. The other condition being that you go into this movie and you view it as a mindless popcorn movie. Because, like I said, if you go into it thinking that it's gonna have the same supposed quality that the MCU movies have, then you're gonna be very disappointed. I've only seen a handful of the MCU movies, so while I will say that this movie would never rival, say, the first "Iron Man" movie, I sincerely doubt that this movie was trying to aim for that sort of standard. It's just there to be a fun mindless popcorn flick that you can go into, as long as you're willing to shut your brain off. This movie, while certainly not as good as the first movie was, I still rather enjoyed it, and I'm probably gonna put this thing next to my DVD copy of "Venom". That way, I can have them both together in case I want to marathon these movies back to back at anytime. Speaking of which, I'm kinda in the mood to go back and re-watch my copy of "Venom" right now. So, I'm gonna go do that next, after I'm done putting this review together.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of the first Reaction & Review for 2023. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.