Investigative journalist Eddie Brock decides that the best way to get his career kick-started again is to interview incarcerated serial killer Cletus Kasady. However, things go awry when Cletus becomes the host to a dangerous symbiote named Carnage. With Eddie having his own trouble with his own symbiote Venom (leading to Venom leaving Eddie and finding new hosts) Eddie asks ex-girlfriend Anne to find Venom so that he can put a stop to Carnage's deadly rampage...

As sequels go Let There Be Carnage is pretty decent, if not quite as good as the first film. It's fairly short and quick to get going; though it's arguable that the first film needed to be longer and a tad slower in order to establish its origin story. The relationship between Venom and Eddie is explored well here; their exploits together are hilarious so much so that they almost behave like a married couple at times; this is highlighted in a brilliant one liner by Dan Lewis at one point in the film. I did like the way that Eddie does everything in his power to try to appease Venom even though it never quite seems to be enough.

Once Carnage is unleashed the film begins to go through the gears providing many thrilling fights between Venom and Carnage; Venom facing a more powerful adversary exposes his vulnerability which makes the fights a tad more intense. I wasn't as impressed with Shriek as a character whom for me was not particularly interesting; her extremely loud screaming just seemed a bit silly and given that this causes an issue to the symbiotes she actually acted more of a hindrance than help; again this could have been flipped to have more impact on the symbiotes had it been used better within the context of the story.

As far as the performances go then there's not much that needs to be said about Tom Hardy (whom is arguably one of the finest actors of his generation). His interplay with Venom which essentially set the pair up as a double act was both amusing and at times strained as he has to continually try to keep control of his symbiote as well as keeping him happy. Woodly Harrelson is great and puts in a very memorable performance. Naomi Harris (whom I have to admit to not recognising at first) is also superb, but I just wish that her character was more interesting. Michelle Williams does well with what she had to work with, but isn't used very well and I didn't think much of Reid Scott's performance (then again maybe it's not entirely his fault as he felt like a bit of a nothing character). Stephen Graham is also good in his respective role.

Serkis fast-paced direction and general sense of fun do help to paper over some of the cracks that exist with characterisation etc and the special effects are also top notch.

Whilst this falls ever so slightly short of being as good as the first film, it is a lot of fun and blitzes by at a lightning pace. There was plenty of carnage, but in this film that was a good thing.