By Mateo Coulson ’24
Venom: Let There Be Carnage was a superhero movie released on October 1st, 2021. The film stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, with Woody Harrelson, Naomi Harris, and Michelle Williams as supporting characters. The movie takes place after the events of the first film, Venom, in the same setting of San Francisco. In this film, Eddie Brock and Venom must learn to set aside their differences in order to defeat Carnage, an offspring of Venom that was created after Cletus Kasady/Carnage came across the symbiote. And maybe along the way he can restore the relationship with his ex-fiancé.
The best part about this movie is definitely Woody Harrelson. Yeah, the rest of the characters are cool, and I like the chemistry between Eddie and Venom, but through his creepy demeaner and unstable nature, Woody Harrelson steals the show whenever he is on screen. His comically terrible backstory, his chemistry with his love interest Frances Barrison (aka Shriek), and his insatiable desire for “carnage” make him a very fun character to watch.
Other positive attributes I liked about this movie is the relationship between Woody Harrelson’s character Cletus Kasady and Naomi Harris’s character Frances Barrison. You certainly do sympathize with the couple at times until you see them do something evil. In addition, the action sequences and “symbiote” (the monsters) transformations are well made, the computer–generated imagery looks very realistic whenever a character transforms into Venom or Carnage. Furthermore, I thought the climax was the best scene of the movie as it had a perfect blend of humor, suspense, and action with a great payoff at the end.
Despite this, I this film did have quite a few flaws. For example, I felt like the first few scenes with Woody Harrelson were slightly rushed. Moreover, there is a subplot involving Eddie Brock and Venom having to cope with one another that I thought was very rushed, but I will admit that the writers did make use of this subplot to make some funny jokes. Speaking of jokes, I felt like there were many jokes that could have either improved on their timing or should have been taken out altogether, such as anything that had to do with chickens (there’s a lot of those).
This film relates to Bellarmine through the value of being a man for others. Venom: Let There Be Carnage certainly exemplifies this value by having Eddie Brock and Venom help others by saving his girlfriend, helping out innocent civilians, and by… only eating the heads off of “bad guys.”
On the Mateo–Movie–Meter, I give Venom: Let There Be Carnage a 7 on a scale of 1–10 because despite its flaws in pacing and humor, the action sequences and the performances, especially by those of the villains, provide a humorous, well–made addition to the Sony Spider–Man Universe. I enjoyed this movie and would moderately recommend you watch this movie if you like superhero movies and/or if you just want to turn off your brain for an hour or two.
And if you do watch this movie, make sure to stay for the mid–credits scene, as it is by far one of the best teasers ever given in a credits scene.
