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Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Jan. 21st, 2022 05:19 pmI have not been to the cinema since the middle of 2019, first because I was sick and then because there was a plague, and I am not going into the plague box with our case numbers the way they are right now. (Will there be another wave in May, preventing me from seeing Doctor Strange 2 the day it comes out? I sure hope not.) So I still haven't seen Spider-Man: No Way Home even though I want to see my boy Stephen and my other boy Wong and my other other boy Doc Oc as played by Alfred Molina. However, the Venom sequel is finally available on various streaming services, so my Venom-loving BFF came over this afternoon and we watched it together.
If you liked the first film and/or laughed at the trailer where Venom makes breakfast, you should watch this, preferably with a like-minded pal. If not, avoid it like the plague. It is not a good movie ... BECAUSE IT IS A FUCKING GREAT MOVIE!!! I saw one review that described it as the scum at the bottom of the Avenger's shower, which is frankly a pretty accurate description. But in a good way! If you like this sort of thing!
I thought this worked better than the first instalment because this time everyone knew what tone they were aiming for and didn't have to adapt on the fly to things like Tom Hardy deciding to climb into the restaurant lobster tank. (Yes, that was improv. I feel for the set people, I truly do.) So it leans aaaaaaaallllll the way in to the campiness, right through to the audacious mid-credits scene. It's like the superhero films of the nineties came back, only weirder and covered in alien goo. And while I'm glad that camp is no longer the default tone for superhero stuff, I'm also glad to see it within the range of the genre, off in its own strange slime-coated little corner. I think my only real problem was that ( spoilers I guess? )
I can definitely see how this is not for everyone, but I'm still a bit baffled by critics trying to judge it as some kind of serious film project. This is a movie where Venom goes to a rave. At one point Eddie advances the plot by going somewhere, shining a torch around two minutes and conveniently finding some initials that were carved in a tree thirty years ago. The review that said it was 'wrapped around a depressing and poorly-handed story about the prison-industrial complex' is particularly confusing. So I'm not surprised that there's a vast disparity between the critic and audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Presumably the audience who went to see it had liked the first one and wanted more, and it certainly delivers that.)
If nothing else, Andy Serkis should go down in history as a director who, when told he needed to make a PG-13 Venom movie where he could have one f-bomb and one instance of Our Hero biting off someone's head, found the perfect moment for both.
If you liked the first film and/or laughed at the trailer where Venom makes breakfast, you should watch this, preferably with a like-minded pal. If not, avoid it like the plague. It is not a good movie ... BECAUSE IT IS A FUCKING GREAT MOVIE!!! I saw one review that described it as the scum at the bottom of the Avenger's shower, which is frankly a pretty accurate description. But in a good way! If you like this sort of thing!
I thought this worked better than the first instalment because this time everyone knew what tone they were aiming for and didn't have to adapt on the fly to things like Tom Hardy deciding to climb into the restaurant lobster tank. (Yes, that was improv. I feel for the set people, I truly do.) So it leans aaaaaaaallllll the way in to the campiness, right through to the audacious mid-credits scene. It's like the superhero films of the nineties came back, only weirder and covered in alien goo. And while I'm glad that camp is no longer the default tone for superhero stuff, I'm also glad to see it within the range of the genre, off in its own strange slime-coated little corner. I think my only real problem was that ( spoilers I guess? )
I can definitely see how this is not for everyone, but I'm still a bit baffled by critics trying to judge it as some kind of serious film project. This is a movie where Venom goes to a rave. At one point Eddie advances the plot by going somewhere, shining a torch around two minutes and conveniently finding some initials that were carved in a tree thirty years ago. The review that said it was 'wrapped around a depressing and poorly-handed story about the prison-industrial complex' is particularly confusing. So I'm not surprised that there's a vast disparity between the critic and audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (Presumably the audience who went to see it had liked the first one and wanted more, and it certainly delivers that.)
If nothing else, Andy Serkis should go down in history as a director who, when told he needed to make a PG-13 Venom movie where he could have one f-bomb and one instance of Our Hero biting off someone's head, found the perfect moment for both.