'Venom' Sequel Leans Into The Best Parts Of The First
Starring Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris, Reid Scott
Rated PG-13
Action, Sci-fi
Run time: 1 hr, 30 min
Directed by Andy Serkis
In theaters October 1, 2021
Whatever the opposite of the sophomore slump is, that’s the path the Venom series is taking. Sophomore soar? Either way, this weird, Spider-Man-meets-Deadpool-meets-horror-film manages to take every (small) thing from the first attempt at telling this man/symbiote’s story and magnify it, while still hovering around the 90 minute mark. While the movie as a whole does get overshadowed by a doozy of a mid-credits scene, it is still more fun than I had expected, and clearly, the people behind this film did listen to the audience feedback and factor it all in. And as someone who was expecting the mediocrity of the first, I was pleasantly surprised, and came away actually excited to see what comes next.
The movie picks up relatively where we’d expect it to: Eddie Brock (Hardy) and Venom (also Hardy) are attempting to balance sharing one body and giving Venom the “nutrients” he needs, that apparently are only available via chocolate or brains. However, it’s obvious the honeymoon period is ending, and the two have a spat that would give a soap opera diva slap-fight a run for its money. His ex and her new fiancée (Williams and Scott) are on the periphery of his life, just enough to encourage Venom’s preference for her and disdain for Eddie screwing it up and letting her go. We then throw in an incarcerated mass murderer (Harrelson) and his long-ago love (Harris) and another symbiote (unsurprisingly, named Carnage), and things get pretty dark - literally and metaphorically - pretty quickly.
This movie is far from perfect, and there are plenty of eye-roll-ish moments, but overall, there’s something to be said about a bunch of solid actors just having fun with what they’ve been given. Harrelson’s career over the last five or so years has become very clearly him living his best life, between this and Now You See Me 2. He’s chewing on scenery and snarking his way through this film with dramatics that in most other roles would look a bit silly, but it fits in just fine where the main character has a second “personality” that really needs some M&Ms before he goes insane. Thankfully, Williams seems to be given a bit more to work with, and actually is an active participant in the story - and a delightful addition than just being the female motivation for Eddie’s existence.
The interactions between Venom and Eddie still prove to be one of the best aspects of the movie, and the snark that comes from this weird creature aimed at both his host and everyone around him. The relationship he has with Mrs. Chen, the owner of the nearby bodega, is another highlight, and is showcased in a few different ways, especially related to their deal about how she will keep Venom flush with chocolate. Overall, it was a lot more entertaining than its predecessor, and everyone had more of a significant role than before, making the relationships much more lived in and organic, even when it’s an alarmingly dangerous and unstable romance between an escaped murderer-turned-symbiote and a howling X-man style woman broken out of a psych hospital.