I Watch Movies: Venom Let There Be Carnage

Venom: Let There Be Carnage

In Venom, journalist Eddie Brock became host to an alien symbiote, called Venom. Now the two are living in an uneasy partnership. Venom needs a substance found only in brains and chocolate, and Eddie’s main rule is that Venom shouldn’t eat people.

Serial killer Clay Kassidy takes a liking to Eddie and promises to tell him things if he’ll print the message he wants. Eddie does so, and Venom figures out from Kassidy’s drawings where the bodies are buried. The governor of California lifts the moratorium on executions just for Kassidy because he’s so evil and Brock grants his final wish of an interview, in the process of which Kassidy bites Brock, realises his blood is not human, and then grows his own symbiote, Carnage. Kassidy escapes.

Kassidy tries to make the claim that he and Eddie have a lot in common, which they don’t really, though they’re both separated from the women they love. Kassidy is searching for the girl from the children’s home he grew up in, who has sonic powers (black canary scream, not blue hedgehog speed) and has been locked up in an institute that is basically where an X-Men villain would keep mutants. The symbiotes are sensitive to loud, resonating noises, like her scream or a big bell. Eddie meanwhile discovers his ex-girlfriend is now engaged to Dan. Between this and their general mis-match of personalities, Venom and Eddie split up at just the moment when Kassidy and Carnage come looking for them.

Venom and Eddie’s partnership is cute, charming, and also very stressful as Venom continually makes a mess of the apartment and wants Eddie to do things like murder people who annoy them or become a vigilante called Lethal Protector. Kassidy is probably too charismatic; what we see him do is escape being executed, then rescue his girlfriend from the evil mutant-capture facility she’s in, which even with the huge bodycount is not unusual by the standards of superhero films. We don't see his horrible murders! The actual symbiote fights are perfectly fine, occasionally a bit unclear as bodies fly about and enormous strands of alien flesh reach out as they swing around buildings.

Watch This: Superhero film with a bit more edge and a bit more heart than usual. And quick and efficient with it!
Don’t Watch This: A head eating alien is not charming and fun