Dr Review: Venom Let There Be Carnage

I was super excited when the original Venom came out in 2018. Most of the time I like Tom Hardy when he is not trying to be Marlon Brando.....just because you are not understandable doesn't mean you are a good actor. I read all of the reviews when it came out and I was disappointed. I didn't go see it right away. It was about two weeks and I finally went and checked it out and I loved it. I think mostly people don't know what to make of a lot of talk about Symbiotes. So needless to say I was very much looking forward to this sequel.

We knew from the end of the first movie that Woody Harrelson was being set up as the new bad guy in Venom's world come the next movie. Comic book fans knew he played Carnage, a super bad Symbiote, created from Venom himself. Woody tends to steal all scenes he is in for most of his roles. Add another Oscar nominated actress played by Naomie Harris as another Spiderman arch villain called Shriek and it is setting up to be a monster showdown.

Movie is awesome....and if you don't like long movies it is only 90 minutes, or about the same run time as F4: Silver Surfer. However...I am not sure the yearning of filmmakers to constantly pack as many bad guys into a super hero movie as possible. Woody is not used enough, Naomi is relegated to screaming, and there is not enough explaination as to what and how Carnage came about. Andy Serkis....yes Gollum...directed and kind of puts you right into the action without wasting any time with story. It doesn't need to be Avengers like three hours, but another ten or fifteen minutes to build characters...after all you get in to a story because you care about characters....could have gone a long way. Maybe even introduce the Shriek character, make her the MacGuffin, and bring her in at the end to be the baddie in future movies, leaving more screen time for Woody and not wasting her. Again, still liked the movie, but if you are trying to build a universe of your own, which Sony would like to do with the Marvel characters they own the rights to. You have to have buy in. The MCU has learned that without the action, the movies don't sell, but without the characters you don't have anything. Think of the difference between Thor Ragnorok and the earlier Thor movies. Once he got a little quirkiness to him and developed a Lethal Weapon like bromance with Loki, the characters were all more easy to buy into. Think Guardians of the Galaxy and how you even buy into a tree who only knows three words.

This movie also sets up the crossover of Venom and the MCU. Not sure how this will work with so much early Venom material from the comic books has Venom as a villain. Will they have he and Spidey fight like Batman and Superman? Will they have Topher Graces Venom show up and you will have Venom on Venom crime?

If you like the Comic book movies and especially if you were a fan of the first movie or even a Deadpool fan, this is a must see. Hell just go see it to support the movie theater business which ahs had its ass kicked for the last year and a half from a flu virus. Give the Venom movie a big 'Hell Yeah!' from the doctor and check it out today.