Director: Andy Serkis
Writers: Kelly Marcel (screenplay by), Tom Hardy (story by), Todd McFarlane(Marvel’s Venom character created by)
On general release
Eddie Brock attempts to reignite his career by interviewing serial killer Cletus Kasady, who becomes the host of the symbiote Carnage and escapes prison after a failed execution.
Nat says: ‘Can someone translate this into girl for me?’
Venom: Let There Be Carnage follows on almost immediately from the end credits scene of Venom (2018), which was a movie I was surprised to find I really liked. I was expecting a sort of superhero Real Housewives bitch fight.
But what I got was something that while a bit silly – and, yes, a bit Real Housewives – was also funny. I also do enjoy Tom Hardy in most things and he really seemed to be enjoying himself, too. The man jumped into a tank in a restaurant and ate a live lobster! It was hard not to love it as a result. Honest!
Importantly, I also could follow what was going on. It wasn’t hard. Aliens from outer space are brought to Earth. To survive, they need to achieve a symbiosis with a human host. Most humans don’t make good hosts, but Tom Hardy’s failed journalist Eddie Brock proves to be a great host for one alien called Venom.
At first, Venom seems to be evil and wanting purely to eat humans. However, over time, it becomes clear that Venom may give Hardy superstrength, speed, indestructibility and a really, really bad make-over, but he’s actually a bit of a loser on his own world and a terrible coward when faced by the alphas of his own kind.
That seemed quite fresh to me, after countless sci-fi movies with indestructible, motiveless nasty aliens that like to kill everyone with their sharp, pointy bits. Yuck.
By the end, Hardy and Venom have their own physical and emotional “odd couple” symbiosis, with Venom wanting to roam the city stopping bad guys – principally by eating their heads – and Hardy doing his best to keep Venom in check.
Unfortunately, Venom: Let There Be Carnage would have needed translating into girl for me to like it more than I did. I’ll explain what I mean in a moment…
Let there be perfunctory characterisation
So first off, let’s explain what I don’t mean. I get superheroes. I really do. I’d like to think I’m down with the superheroes and superheroines, both Marvel and DC. I also know what Venom and Carnage are, more or less. Look, here’s my Symbiote roster in MSF.
I just finished the City nodes of my timed DD4 run in only a few days with those bad boys (and girl – Scream, you changed my life, you really did), and I one-shot the first two nodes at that, I’ll have you know.
But this latest Venom movie really had me running for the hills to find someone who could explain what was going on.
In Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we have Woody Harrelson playing a serial killer. He’s locked away in jail, Hardy having been the man who put him there through his top reporting. However, he’s really pining for the girl he knew while growing up in a children’s home. Everyone thinks she’s dead, but it turns out that she’s alive and well and stuck in a research facility (she has superpowers, obvs). She’s also now played by Naomie Harris (Moneypenny in the Bond movies).
I tried to work that one out. Yes, I’m a girl who can do maths. Sucks to be you, Barbie.
Harris was born in 1976 and Harrelson in 1961, but both were supposed to have been in a children’s home in 1996, when their characters were roughly the same age. Except they’d have been 20 and 35 respectively. Now they’re 45 and 60 and pretending to be 30-somethings. It’s kind of cruel, TBH.
If this had been a Marvel, rather than a Sony movie, someone would have had the good grace to de-age Harrelson, but no, the poor man looks like he’s been bereft of moisturiser and living with the Fremen in the deep desert for the past 10 years then fitted with one of Donald Trump’s wigs, particularly when he’s next to the beautiful Harris. He should definitely sue for that. That’s defamation.
Harris should also sue for not having any lines of note. Not a one. She doesn’t have much screen time, either. That might actually be a criminal charge against the studio, rather than a civil matter. She should definitely at least talk to a lawyer.
The only person Harrelson wants visiting him is Hardy. On Hardy’s final visit, for no really good reason, Harrelson is able to bite him and that somehow creates a red symbiote that bonds with Harrelson, enabling him to break out of prison and go on the hunt for Hardy. Harrelson, for his part, wants his new alien ‘friend’ – Carnage – to help him find Harris.
While all this is happening, Hardy and Venom are having fights about the direction of their relationship and there’s the inevitable bad break-up for them both to deal with, sometimes with the help of Hardy’s ex-Michelle Williams – all hail Jen Lindley, the queen of bad break-ups!
Will Venom and Hardy be reunited and reconciled in time to stop Carnage from killing everyone with his sharp, pointy bits?
What’s it all about, Hardy?
So I’ll tell you what I mean about needing this translated into girl. Carnage’s motivations are unclear. As is what Carnage is. He’s a ‘red one’, which apparently is a scary thing, according to Venom (one of the movie’s funnier moments), who’s one of the black ones, I guess. But where does he come from? Does Harrelson create him?
Here’s what my friend told me:
So Cletus bit Eddie, which drew Eddie’s blood (and a small insignificant amount of the symbiote), the symbiote Venom merged with the blood which is technically asexual reproduction, which Cletus then licked and swallowed.
Thus, Carnage is born from the asexual reproduction of Eddie’s blood and a bit of Venom and bonding to Cletus.
The comics do a better job of explaining it though! In the comics Cletus and Eddie share a prison cell – during Venom’s breakout of Eddie Brock a small amount is left around and Cletus who has a cut on his hand picks up the Symbiote which binds directly to Cletus via his cut.
My friend
I still have no idea where Carnage comes from. I still have no idea why Carnage doesn’t like his ‘father’, Venom, and wants to kill him. Is that something even the comics chose to explain?
The movie’s main trouble is that everything to do with Carnage, Harrelson and Harris is just empty. I’ve seen more coherent characterisation on TOWIE. There’s supposed to be a sort of Bonnie and Clyde love story going on, but the movie assumes you realise it’s a Bonnie and Clyde love story and that’s motivation and explanation enough.
No one ever seems to explain either why these two love one another, despite only having spent a little time together as children 25 years ago. I mean, I’m not asking for a full Dawson’s Creek level of emotional loquaciousness from either of them, but maybe a hint, maybe a tender moment, might have been nice?
When I say I need this movie ‘translated into girl’, I don’t mean I don’t understand the sci-fi. I mean I want the relationships and the characters to be plausible.
The reason for making movies
It feels to me like director Andy Serkis and screenwriter Kelly Marcel simply assumed that provided they went through the motions of movie making, that would be enough. A bit of odd-couple comedy in the same style as the first movie, a bit of smashing and bashing, a bit of gore – I think they think that’s all you need for a superhero movie to do what’s required of it.
But it’s not enough. Even when dealing with the extraordinary, there need to be motivations that we can understand. Or, at the very least, motivations. I’ll take someone doing something for a reason*.
All this confusion didn’t help me to love Venom: Let There Be Carnage. That didn’t mean I hated it.
I will give you that Tom Hardy prat-falling around, punching himself in the face, while pretending to talk to his parasite, does go a long way towards entertaining me, at least. I could watch that for ages.
Ah, Tom. I love you, Tom.
Some of the jokes are funny. Venom and Hardy’s interactions are a little forced, but I laughed and they did feel at times like a real couple. Is it weird that the most plausible relationship in the entire movie is between Tom Hardy and a CGI monster voiced by Tom Hardy?
All the fighting and the sharp, pointy things left me cold, but there were times when it was almost exciting, or Tom made it seem important enough. Andy Serkis may be a better actor than he is a director, but the movie was competently executed. There’s even quite a nice cartoon backstory drawn out at one point.
Lady Venom – when Michelle Williams is Venom – I could really have a lot more of in my movie-watching life, too. And then there’s that end credits scene when (spoiler alert) Dr Strange changes the entire multiverse and brings all the Sony movies into the MCU, so that Venom can now be in the next Spider-man movie is jaw-dropping. I genuinely squeed like the fangirl I am at that point.
It’s just it could have been so much better, if someone had simply sat down and put some effort into tightening up the very basics of movie-making: plot, motivation and character. What girls like me care about. And maybe men, too?
* In the right circumstances, such as a David Lynch movie or something very surreal, I can bypass this rule. But in most dramas and comedies, I need something that makes me feel like what I’m watching hasn’t been put together through writers throwing their index cards in the air and then assembling them when they land into the movie’s plot and character motivations.
