Most people who liked the first Venom (me included, it was a mixed but diverting effort) were in agreement that the most enjoyable part was watching Eddie and Venom goof on each other and their banter. I'm pleased to report that they actually listened to the fans and they included much more. A lot of the dialogue is off kilter and hammy but it also delivered the only laughs I got in the movie. Tom Hardy is trying his best again, he's less of an action hero and more of a comedian in this one and while a lot of his material falls flat, some of it did land.

Leading into the performances, although his effort was consistent, a lot of Hardy's performance was undercut by how goofy and poorly stitched together the rest of the movie was. He's an extremely talented actor and its cool he got a story credit but he couldn't punch his way through this. Woody Harrelson looked really bad in the marketing, it wasn't his fault though. His acting still dialed up way too high on the overdone scale but how they choose to use his character is bizarre, there's so little character motivation for his clash with Eddie Brock and his subplot with Frances is so undercooked, I just can't put that on him. Speaking of Frances, how did they get Naomi Harris for this role? She gets nothing to do, her character is poorly written and she's all over the place. I've liked her so much in other things, I just felt terrible for her. Ditto for Stephen Graham as Detective Mulligan, he's shown up in some terrible stuff before but there wasn't a chance here with how half baked his character was. Lastly, Michelle Williams is back but she's an afterthought and other than some of the random hi jinx, she's given nothing to do.

The first Venom was pretty reliant on the CGI for the action, I thought it was pretty good actually but Venom 2 largely offers more of the same. I wouldn't say they're bad or even lacklustre but serviceable is accurate. Carnage is affected by the dramatic side of the movie so when he starts throwing stuff around and causing havoc, its not emotionally wrenching but it looks okay.

I've listed as many positives as I can, Venom's achilles heel is the story and its handling of the characters. Small issues right? With how they handle Cletus/Carnage there's almost no conflict, its also the same with Venom and Eddie. There's no serious threat to their friendship or their partnership and while their bickering is amusing, it doesn't amount to a story. Let alone what they do with Frances and Detective Mulligan, it all amounts to a giant mess. I don't know if I've ever seen such a high budget movie that had so much work into it that was so slapdash and carelessly thrown together from a story perspective.

If I were to take any kind of emotion out of it, Venom: Let There Be Carnage would be up there with Old and Wonder Woman 1984 as the biggest misfires I've seen lately. Lucky for Venom 2, there is such a things as being enjoyably bad. There a lot of campy gold here and it sustained me through the rest of the crap. So while I can't recommend seeing it in theatres, if you're into so-bad-its-good movies, this could be worth a watch. I'm not sure if I want a 3rd one though, there was a lot of potential after the original Venom, if this is the direction they chose to go, maybe its best to call it quits.