With a shorter run-time than its predecessor, "Venom: Let there be Carnage" once again follows Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, the once slightly dodgy reporter who has become host to an alien symbiote that gives him superpowers with a not so heroic twist (as featured in Marvel comics, specifically Spiderman but then branched out). Following on from their last outing in 2018 this 2021 film once again delivers action with a twist of dry humor as Eddie and Venom exchange conversations and attempt to figure out who is control of their co-existence while facing different challenges. This time their nemesis is Carnage, yet another symbiote which is co-existing with deranged death row serial killer Cletus Kasady (as hinted at in the first film). Kasady managed to get himself some alien symbiote action when he bit Brock during an interview. With his new alien superpowers Kasady escapes and causes... well... he causes lots of Carnage along the way. Hot on his tails, and Brock's too, is Detective Mulligan. Kasady is aided on his path of, err, Carnage by his former lover Frances Barrison/ Shriek who possesses superhuman screaming power.

Right then, so we know Tom Hardy is back as Venom, he contributed more though because he helped with the story too. Woody Harrelson is Carnage/Cletus Kasady, Naomi Harris plays Frances Barrison/Shriek, and Stephen Graham is Detective Mulligan. They're all brought together under the directorship of Gollum; I mean Andy Serkis. Hardy is credited of working on the story with Kelly Marcel who also did the screenplay. That's a lot of big names already, there are more, and the crew and cast is big and has plenty of experience, so surely this anti-hero film must be good right, as good as the last one at least yeah. Well, I'm sorry, it felt a little weak and unmemorable truth be told. There were parts that were far-fetched, but in truth it was a very simple premises...

Guy1/Symbiote1 (has superpowers) interviews Guy2 (serial killer) and accidently gives him Symbiote2/superpowers. Guy2/Symbiote2 uses powers to escape prison and cause Carnage. Guy1/Symbiote1 are having identity/co-existence issues. They must work through it to fight Guy2/Symbiote2.

Sure, the story is weak, but then perhaps the action great, maybe the CGI is mind-blowing, perhaps the dialogue is rich, and the humor is dark?? Yeah... maybe don't hold your breath on that either. The action was pretty much rinse and repeat from the first Venom film or from any superhero film of the Marvel/DC cinematic era. If anything, it felt toned down, having read the comics the action is usually dark and nasty, this seemed to hold back.

The CGI wasn't the worst I'd seen, but wasn't great either, there where scenes that were so obviously green-screened and filled with CGI that at times it put me off and became laughable. The dialogue was just enough to drive the film but not really that well thought out, there were times when Kasady was able to talk in detail about Brock's past, but they hadn't been life-long friends so how he knew that level of detail and intimacy was beyond me. I kept having to wonder if I had missed something. The fact that it just boiled down to a symbiote vs symbiote film like the first outing was a bit of a let-down - I can only assume this is because Sony, who own the rights here, can't go delving into the Marvel character database to give us something new.

The humor? Ahh yeah, there are times that the Venom symbiote is supposed to be coming off as funny - it felt like too much dialogue was given to that character, and it didn't land well either. The scenes where Venom is without Brock and discovering himself and partying, it felt like that was added for kids to enjoy more than anybody else, but with a rating of censor rating of 15 I think it was still too weak.

I'm sorry, I really hate being negative about this, but the film was a bit of disappointing mess. It felt like it had been rushed, chopped, changed, and then just put in front of the audience so they had something rather than nothing. Instead of "let there be Carnage" it felt more like "let there be cringe". One thing it had going for it though - at just an hour and half I didn't have to suffer that much. Damn it, I wanted to like this. 4/10.