Unlike most, I actually enjoy the first Venom. It is a fun movie and it has some well directed action sequences. Hardy is great as Brock and Venom is hilarious. Fast forward to Venom, Let there be Carnage, and I can't find anything noteworthy to be positive about. Woody doesn't seem like the same character they set up from the first film at all and frankly, neither does Eddie. With Cletus, he is shown right off the bat to be super sympathetic, hurting, longing which is a far cry from the whacko sprawling messages on the wall in blood. (and don't even get me started on the hair!) The addition of Shriek was pointless as she had no chemistry with Cletus and the storyline overall was pretty uninteresting. The scenes with Brock/Venom were ok but not nearly as fun this time around, mostly due to the lines they gave Venom. His delivery wasn't as good, most of the jokes don't land, and the voice wasn't as deep or menacing as it was in the first either. It felt like they went overboard when they could have just kept the same balance they had before. Also, Venom kept exposing himself with his "tentacles" all the time, just randomly when Eddie is around other people. Are you telling me no one ever noticed?? Yeah, right.

And while I appreciate movies that don't turn their properties into 3 - 4 hour "epics", The runtime is this is just way too short and leaves no room for character development, especially with the supporting players. I think a good 10-15 minutes more might have improved some things but overall, you can't really make up for the bland story, inconsistent acting, and so-so direction.