Venom 2 - October 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sometimes sucks really badly; this morning of mine’s was a certain proof of that!.. In other news, ‘Venom 2: Let there be Carnage’ was out last week, so let us talk about it instead, while Uatu is busy being Nick Fury to Ultra-Vision’s Loki. What about it?

The initial ‘Venom’ film was a separate beast from the rest of MCU, and so’s ‘Venom 2’… mostly. At the end of the film, there’re not so subtle signs that Venom – and ‘Venom’ – are coming to MCU after all; guess Sony has brokered its’ peace with MCU & Disney… So what?

Good question: ‘Venom 2’ in many ways is a re-mastered first film; the main difference between Carnage, (the movie version), and Riot, (the symbiote from the first film), is that Riot was lawful evil, and had a greater plan – to bring the rest of their race down to Earth so that the latter would be conquered – while Carnage was chaotic evil instead and just went on a murderous killing spree, as he usually does in all of the universes, (though in the 1990s’ cartoon series he joined baron Mordo instead to free Dormamu – but that is neither here nor there). Of course, Venom has to stop him anyhow, or else Carnage will kill him (and everyone else), but the point is that in both Tom Hardy movies Venom is an anti-hero, or rather a hero despite his baser nature: he has to stop the other symbiotes or else he’s doomed just as the rest of Earth is. (Uatu may have other opinions, but so far, he and Venom have never communicated with each other); i.e., there is little character development between those two movies, and there is actually some regress, seeing how Eddie has lost Anne again to the good doctor, (after winning her back at the end of the first film), but don’t fear! She is still the other person that Venom can bond with without killing them instead, (as he did both in this film and in the first one). Seriously, people, just have an orgy – it would be right up in Venom’s alley!..

…However, unlike AoS, where the recycling of ideas has turned MCU’s S.H.I.E.L.D. so toxic that now none of its characters – aside from some Coulson cameos – have re-appeared in either ‘What if?’ or anywhere else in the phase 4 MCU – the Venom franchise actually made it work. Why? Because unlike AoS, the Venom franchise does not attempt to go deep; it is actually is quite shallow, just as the titular character is. I.e., Venom is formidable, but he is not prone to self-contemplation or anything like that; Tom Hardy’s other character of the film – Eddie Brock – attempts to, sort of, but that is not enough: for a powerful alien monster, Venom is rather child-like in some ways, which make him lovable to the audience, sort of. Pause.

Let us try again. All movies are products that aim to be bought by the audience, (both literally and metaphorically), but whereas Disney seeks to make its’ MCU movies, (and also SW films, but let us ignore them right now), something meaningful and insightful and deep, (though nowhere as deep as ‘Dune-2021’ was, thank God), Sony – when it came to the ‘Venom’ franchise – did not. Both ‘Venom’ and ‘Venom 2’ aimed solely to entertain via a shock and awe approach, nothing more, nothing less. As the ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ movie showed, the (American) audiences are tired of ‘deep and meaningful’ movies, and are quite ready for something that is completely different, such as ‘Let there be Carnage’ film. It doesn’t offer any deep truths, any deep meanings, any subtle and/or hidden depths, but rather it wears its’ heart on its’ sleeve: what you see is what you get… which is basically a horror monster movie, quite appropriate for the month of Halloween, and also excellently made by Mr. Serkis from the technical side of things; so naturally, people have enjoyed watching it, and will enjoy to watch it for weeks to come.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon – probably with the S1 conclusion of ‘What if?’.