This was a movie that I saw the trailer at the theater when I was with Jaime and I told her how excited I was. It is interesting though is that I'm late to seeing this, almost two years later. If a film isn't horror, it is difficult for me to find time at the theater. That is even for one of my favorite comic book antiheroes and villain. Regardless, I finally checked this out.

We are picking this up where the last one left off. Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) visits Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson) in prison. The latter is a serial killer and Eddie is the only person he will talk to. This puts our lead on bad terms with Detective Mulligan (Stephen Graham) because he doesn't understand why. Cletus is cryptic in what he says to Eddie though. I did want to say that the change in hair here was noticeable since I watched this back-to-back with the original. Doesn't ruin it, but I digress.

There is also back-story of Cletus. He was kept at a school with Frances Barrison (Naomie Harris) with whom he loved. She has a superpower that allows her to do a supersonic shriek. This also becomes her name.

Venom is back with Eddie and he notices drawings on the walls of the cell where Cletus is kept. Through this, they learn where the bodies of Cletus' victims are. This causes the governor to re-instate the death penalty for Cletus. Eddie is invited to watch. Things get heated with Eddie getting too close, Cletus biting him and blood getting into his mouth. This causes an interesting change in our villain and a form of the symbiote meshing to him. Carnage is created and wreaks havoc like this name insinuates.

Where I want to start then is that I think this is a good follow up. We are picking up as I said where the last leaves off. Anne Weying (Michelle Williams) is back. She doesn't know for sure if Venom is still with Eddie or not. Their relationship gets even more estranged though when she becomes engaged to Dr. Dan Lewis (Reid Scott). There is also more character development as Venom has a fallout with his host as well.

Then from there, let me go to Cletus and Carnage. I think that they handle this well. It is interesting to see how violent we go while still keeping that PG-13 rating. It is impressive to be honest. Harrelson makes a good Cletus in my opinion. I'd also say that the rest of the cast is also good. Hardy, Williams, Harris and Graham are all the best performances with the rest of the cast rounding this out for what was needed.

There is a gripe that I have here though. This leans too much into the comedy. There are things that just took me out of the movie as they're playing it for laughs. I don't know if they're trying to capture what Deadpool did or what, but I wasn't a fan. It is a shame though as this is well-made. The lower run time from the earlier is good. The effects are solid. It goes heavy CGI, but I think the budget works there. They have Venom, Carnage and Shriek do things that would be difficult to do practically. I'm on board for most of what we're doing here. The tone is just off for me.

In conclusion, I'd still recommend this. I love what they're doing to tie this in with Spider-Man and the rest of the MCU. That has me intrigued. I still enjoy my time here watching two of my favorite comic book characters facing off.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.