Had a ton of fun with
Let There Be Carnage. Best rom-com since
Venom.
It is definitely less of a mess than the first film, though the 90-minute runtime certainly leaves the movies feeling like its whole mentality is just GO GO GO GO GO RACE TO THE FINISH LINE. I'm fine with that, though. It is, after all, a friggin' Venom movie, I'm not looking for a two hour meditation here.
Honestly, I could watch this sweaty, manic Tom Hardy Eddie Brock/Venom performance no matter what the movie around him his like. In both films he plays the character almost like he just wandered off of the
Evil Dead 2 set or something and it is wonderful. The first time around, the movie was at odds with that performance; this time, the film leans more into his unhinged performance, evoking it in its own hectic structure and pacing, and puts the Eddie/Venom relationship (making it a bit more directly romantic this time around) front and center. That Hardy actually has a story credit on this one shows in that regard.
Like the first one, I do think it would have benefitted from an R-rating, though. Got a couple head-chomping, tentacles goop monsters thrashing about, and Carnage gets some kills that could/should have been pretty grisly that were a bit neutered by quick cuts away from the action, so a bit of blood would have been nice. Who knows, maybe there will be an unrated home release cut or something. With the runtime so short, they can afford to slap a few extra seconds of more explicit violence in here and there.
