Venom: Let There Be Carnage skates by on witty banter

They take big swings, even if they miss more than they hit.

When you have a character that is part scrappy investigative journalist and part alien symbiote with a penchant for brains, it’s hard to make it grounded. And it shouldn’t be grounded, it should be completely rowdy and over-the-top.

And yet, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is oddly subdued even though 40 per cent of the movie is bombastic CGI uber-fights, each punch, stab and throwdown a case of diminishing stakes.

But that’s par for the course for the genre, it’s going to take some wild reinvention to break studios out of that overblown final act cage.

What makes Venom: Let There Be Carnage feel unintentionally restrained is that the character is – the Venom side even laments being “caged” by Eddie.

It’s a character that should be chaos personified but one that is ultimately kept in check with M&Ms and the occasional head of a bad guy. Clearly that’s where the franchise has landed, and its openness and certainty about it is what actually makes this sequel a mildly entertaining proposition.

It is, at any rate, a vast improvement on the original film. Venom: Let There Be Carnage leans into the weird but almost adorable buddy comedy dynamic between Venom and Eddie.

They’re like inconsiderate roommates who give each other grief about dirty dishes or lost keys. More literally, Venom is Eddie’s inner demon, which, figuratively is the running commentary track in our own heads of all the things we dare not say aloud because of good graces.

Their relationship arc – the ups and downs, the verbal and physical fights – is Venom: Let There Be Carnage’s core story, it’s what sustains the investment.

Venom wants action and Eddie wants peace, but what they both need is each other – yes, that old chestnut but it works, especially when they’re throwing each other around or pettily destroying each other’s things. And a reminder that they technically share the same body.

But the advertised core story of the film is the introduction of Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), teased in a post-credit scene in the first film.

Kasady is a convicted serial killer who will only talk to Eddie. Eddie obliges on the plea of Detective Mulligan (Stephen Graham) who wants to know where Kasady buried his victims.

When a prison visit goes awry, Kasady becomes host to Venom’s spawn, Carnage, which enables to serial killer to break out of prison and rescue his lady love Frances/Shriek (Naomie Harris).

Mayhem, hostage-taking and violence ensues.

Harrelson and Harris’s performances are both suitably deranged, but they also feel rather prosaic among the pantheon of unhinged supervillains that also includes Joker, Harley Quinn and Penguin.

So, thank god for the oddball Eddie/Venom banter.

Rating: 3/5

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is in cinemas now

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Originally published as Venom: Let There Be Carnage skates by on witty banter