I left the theatre disappointed and a little bit angry. I had discussed all that I thought was wrong with Venom: Let There Be Carnage with my friend and my brother in the car, but if you are looking for a short answer, it doesn’t compare at all. 

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a sequel to the original Venom movie released in 2018. Venom was originally a comic book villain to the famous Spider-Man. However, this movie contradicts a lot of the comics, angering many fans, including myself. 

While moving away from the storylines of the original comics is encouraged, there still has to be an intact character that the audience knows and loves.

Venom is scary and wants to kill and take revenge on people. He has this aggressive mindset that was unheard of before in most comics. The personality we see throughout the movie is supposed to come from Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), the host that Venom takes over.

With that being said, I was initially delighted they gave Venom more of a personality. However, instead of being scared of the character, I would start to dread hearing his voice. Rather than writing him as terrifying, he cracks jokes in nearly every line.

It’s not often you hear one serious line come out of his mouth. This is not very pleasant because the crowd wants to see more action and meaning through these lines.   

Eddie is trying to get back together with his ex, and Venom is just trying to be a good friend and give him love advice. That’s not Venom. It’s okay to create bonds between Venom and other characters, but the original scary appeal of Venom is lost by pushing this too much.

Another reason the movie was upsetting was the whole story was more of a “love story” than any action or thriller. It became all about Eddie and his ex, with Venom trying to help and intervene. Venom cares less about killing and develops a more human-like thought process. 

Venom is supposed to be crazy, and Eddie is supposed to be suppressing those feelings. This would give Eddie’s character a challenge to overcome. While Venom is an anti-hero, he isn’t good but isn’t bad; Eddie is supposed to be the hero. We want to root for him throughout the film. 

Instead of rooting for Eddie, we just get annoyed with all of his love life drama. Venom made it very clear that Venom is a killing machine and that it is Eddie’s burden to have to keep him in check. It’s this trait that made Venom so sinister, but that’s lost in this second installment.

However, there is some good to come from this film. If you want to go into the theatre and sit down—maybe hear a joke or an explosion or two and leave—then this is the movie for you. 

Most viewers, including myself, prefer a strong plot with good writing, and for those of you in that same boat as me, you will be incredibly disappointed, and I am sorry. 

Venom is an incredible character. When you give your villain the humor of a stale comedian, that is not Venom. Venom is supposed to be terrifying and make you feel glad that we don’t have anything close to him in our universe. That is Venom.