Venom: Let There Be Carnage is advertised as an epic blockbuster movie, but in reality, with a 90-minute runtime, it only archives the “movie” part. There is only one fight between the main hero and villain, and though that battle is legendary, the movie offers little action otherwise. There are two incredibly memorable scenes in this movie, one released by Sony themselves, showcasing Carnage breaks out of prison. If you haven’t already seen the clip, I recommend not watching it because the reveal of Carnage on the big screen is one you should wait to see. Overall the design of Carnage is one I genuinely love, and though there were no changes to Venom’s look, he still looks great.
Going back to the short runtime, that is where the majority of the problems come in. Due to the brevity, we only get one action sequence of Venom vs. Carnage; though it is ⅓ of the movie, only getting one fight scene between them was disappointing. The shorter runtime gave us less time to connect with Carnage and Shriek, two characters that looked to have a ton of premise at the beginning of the movie.
The movie’s beginning also felt like it had a real director’s vision behind it; the story, and the character of Cletus Kasady, felt honest and dark. The story seemed like it was pushing Eddie to a super dark place, but then suddenly, in the second act, everything changes. It almost feels as if the film’s director, Andy Serkis, stopped directing the movie, and it starts to feel like a corporate cheese-fest, an issue that Let There Be Carnage shares with its predecessor, Venom.
