It's a by-the-book anti-hero action movie.

I guess what makes this one superior to its predecessor is the comedic patter between Venom and Eddie. But even that gets, shall we say, overly abundant. And, without subtitles, a good deal of Venom's dialogue is hard to understand because of how his voice is processed.

The cast is along for the ride - so points for people working for that studio money. Although I could have done without the product placement. Why not just call the chickens "Sony and Cher"? That would have been a much more apropos and funnier tie-in.

My biggest problem is the CGI. It just looks quite video gamey and out of sync with the world of the movie - which is odd since Serkis is usually a master of bringing synthetic cinematics to live. I suppose it is more the appearance rather than performance that breaks the illusion for me. It was constantly on my mind while watching them that Venom and Carnage looked drawn ON the film space but not organically IN the film space.

Otherwise, it is mostly mindless brain-eating fun.

Oh, and Woody Harrelson's hairpiece is also distractingly not of this or any other world. I hope it is the next Klyntar in the series.