A Take on Venom 2 (SPOILER ALERT!)

The long awaited 2nd Installment in Marvel/Sony’s Venom series has at last been internationally released into theaters. After almost 5 delays, the movie directed by Andy Serkis starring Tom Hardy has been anticipated since late 2019 when it was officially announced. Despite the original 2018 film’s somewhat mediocre release and low reviews, it still took in more than $80 million dollars domestically opening week (October 1st).

The start of Venom 2 takes place right after the first film. Eddie Brock is still adjusting to living life with Venom inside of him and controlling part of his life. This prologue of the movie effectively captures the difficulties of having two totally different people in one body and this works humorously. The movie plays around with the idea of similarities between the two and a fighting couple However, the comedic banter between the two characters at times falls flat due to the movie not exactly being consistent; meaning, the mood and atmosphere changes too suddenly through different scenes. Despite that, it is still a major improvement from the last film.

Quickly after the title sequence of the movie, the audience was introduced to Cletus Kassady, more popularly known as Carnage, who was already teased at the end credit of the first film. Carnage has been both Venom’s Friend and foe in Marvel comics since 1992, making his first big screen appearance in this movie. The audience and I were ecstatic to see him on screen, as he’s been a fan favorite character for decades.

Eddie Brock, now struggling with keeping his journalism career afloat, attempts to interview Cletus to hopefully have an attempt at a comeback for his journalism career, despite his failures of the first film. This both works for the story and accurately depicts motives for Eddie to meet with Cletus, as he showed very strong reluctance on going through with the interview in the beginning of the film.

The movie then flashes to a backstory for Cletus. We are shown that he was constantly abused and tortured by his father, who he ends up supposedly killing. As a result, Cletus is sent to a home for unwanted children where he meets Shriek, his friend and later potential love interest. Shortly after Eddie meets Cletus for the interview, Eddie gets too close to the bars, resulting in Cletus jumping at Eddie and biting Eddie’s hand, contracting some of Eddie’s blood into his mouth, which is infused with the symbiote. Because Eddie’s blood is not normal, the blood that Cletus ends up getting in his mouth mixes with his body, giving him a Symbiote equivalent to Venom named Carnage.

This was a creative way to explain how Cletus gained possession of a symbiote, while also explaining why Carnage is red as he is a direct result of blood similar to the comics. Carnage ends up escaping the prison and breaking out his partner Shriek to help him wreak havoc. Because Carnage knows that Eddie is in fact venom he captures Eddie’s ex-wife Anne. This causes Venom and Eddie to put aside their differences and pursue Carnage resulting in the climactic fight of the movie that went high above my expectations. All of the set pieces were huge and the combat between Venom and Carnage was both entertaining and extremely loud and messy in the best way possible. The fight ended with Venom defeating Carnage and taking care of Cletus.

Some of my major pros in this movie were the great performances by Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson. They brought the perfect amount of believable acting and campiness to the characters; however, the film still suffers from very odd pacing similar to the original film. It jumps all over the place the entire film, while trying to keep track of multiple stories and subplots at the same time. This could be the result of the film’s low run time or simply bad editing. Despite that, the film is full of heart annihilation and fun mayhem combined with the lovable performances by the actors and the most game changing end credit scene in Marvel thus far. If you liked the first film or are a fan of Marvel, you will have a blast with this film. I would definitely recommend and give this film a solid 7.5/10.