I attended the Sony Pictures preview of Venom: Let There Be Carnage last night at Event Cinemas Garden City. Whilst I was reminded of the fact that I have a bit of catching up to do with the Marvel cinematic universe (the last time I saw Venom on screen was in Spider-Man 3) I was still able to piece together the story and thoroughly enjoyed this sci-fi action adventure film.
I’ll just start by saying Venom: Let There Be Carnage has a lot of positives. There is excellent comedic dialogue written by Kelly Marcel, solid performances by Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom and Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kasady and the story was thrilling from start to finish. I enjoyed the relationship between Brock and Venom and the arguments they had while coexisting was particularly amusing.
In case you have never come across a symbiote before, Wikipedia describes it as the following: “The symbiotes form a symbiotic bond with their hosts, through which a single entity is created. They also are able to slightly alter their hosts' personalities, and/or memories by influencing their darkest desires and wants, along with amplifying their physical and emotional traits and personality, granting them super-human abilities.” The constant feedback you get from the symbiote living inside of Brock is hilarious, as it is almost like a radio channel you cannot switch off.
Whilst there is a fair bit of humour in this film there is also tonnes of action. Recently I watched Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings and this is the kind of action fighting style I most enjoy watching, as opposed to mutant aliens eating each other’s brains, but I also understand this is the genre we are working with. The film delivers on the sci-fi action front and you even get to understand a more vulnerable side to serial killer Cletus Kasady and what drives his character throughout the film.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a good reminder for us all to get on top of watching all the Marvel movies before the next big film comes out. It is safe to say I enjoyed this film for what it is and I endeavour to watch the original Venom on Disney Plus as I love the themes this film explores.
Joanna Letic