Venom series

  • Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Amazon Streaming, April 2022) Considering my very mild appreciation of the first Venom, I’m as surprised as anyone to note that I liked sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage slightly more than the first one… at least in bits and pieces. Clearly leaning on the comedic elements of the first film and delivering plenty of winks and outright nods at the fannish shipping of Tom Hardy and his pet symbiote (all the way to couple-like bickering and a public coming-out declaration), Let There Be Carnage is looser and freer to play with established characters. The first half-hour of the film may be its best, as it goes for somewhat-imaginative odd-couple comedy, some good character moments and occasionally fulfills the innate craziness of its premise. Things get increasingly more conventional after that, ending not with a climax but a thud of an overextended gothic action sequence involving CGI characters fighting in a CGI cathedral with very little natural excitement emerging from its synthetic conclusion. Still – it’s snappier than its predecessor, Hardy is fine, Woody Harrelson doesn’t do too badly and Naomie Harris is suitably scary/sexy as a villain who ends up being a check on a worse villain. While Let There Be Carnage isn’t necessarily better than the good parts of the first film (nothing tops the wild chase sequence through the streets of San Francisco, for instance), it doesn’t have as many of the lows of its predecessor, and that explains part of why it’s an improvement, with the other part being going past the character’s origin story to become more comfortable with its own strengths. Much will be said about the mid-credit scene tying the series back into the all-consuming MCU, but really – did you expect anything different? Now let’s see where this goes.

  • Venom (2018)

    Venom (2018)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, April 2019) I wanted to be more positive toward Venom, but it’s a slick and overproduced piece of typical action/SF blockbuster, well made at times and yet conceptually dull to a surprising extent. The fun here isn’t in the overall concept, which was also tackled to superior effect in the similar Upgrade. No, where Venom show signs of life is in the details of its execution, whether it’s sight gags during a rather good pursuit through San Francisco streets, a sexy She-Venom (taller and curvier than Michelle Williams) showing up for a few moments, or the ticks and quirks of Tom Hardy’s performance as a man not entirely in control of his life or his body. Part of the problem is in the ludicrous idea of making the film fit within PG-13 confines—the creature design, body horror and tendency for the monster to decapitate and eat its victims make it a poor fit for the rating. I’m usually the last person to opine that R ratings are superior, but that’s not the case here: never mind the lack of blood, it’s the film’s self-conscious restraint in the PG-13 context that makes it repeatedly frustrating—a hard-R would have allowed creative freedom to the result. Otherwise, well, Venom does feel a bit silly in between its good moments. The plausibility of nearly everything is dubious, and the film does suffer from the overproduced tendency of modern blockbusters to keep the camera shaking, overcut action scenes to shreds and throw so much CGI on-screen that we never believe in it. Fortunately, there is a human element: The always-cute Jenny Slate shows up for a few moments; Tom Hardy does turn in an interesting half-possessed performance (with a few exceptions, Hardy isn’t that interesting an actor when he’s just himself—he has to take over a bigger-than-life role to be compelling); and supporting players such as Ahmez Riz to wrap things up. There’s also some mildly interesting subtext (or rather quasi-text) in the symbiotic relationship between the protagonist and his alien host that plays well to audiences willing to let their imaginations run wild. Still, for all of the good bits and pieces to be found in Venom, they feel like exceptions dragged down by the film’s overall dull tone and plot. Something far more interesting could have been possible by using those elements better and so the film remains a disappointment no matter its scattered strengths. But I’m sure we’ll get a sequel anyway.