Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This review will be in two parts and end with an explanation of the overall rating. Thanks for your patience. Potential viewers, especially parents or people who have been in significantly abusive relationships, should be forewarned (see Part B below). Part (A): Though I grew up a Marvel comics reader in the 1980s I never became a fan of Venom. Having seen his original movie and having gone in with low expectations I left with an overall feeling of having moderately liked it. I thought they did a good job. So lets give the sequel, "Venom: Let There Be Carnage", a try. It was much more action-packed than its predecessor and moved at a quick pace, it pays off the by-line as Carnage is almost as large a character in the movie as Venom, and it follows other story threads from the previous film. The visual palette for this film as it adds so much red makes it stand out more than the previous film but, of course, the film's visuals overall are shaded darkly with Venom being an ink black character, lights often being dim, and many things occurring at night and in the dark. It makes it hard for the eye to catch and enjoy the effects on the screen and that's something I don't like in any movie like this. The story is linear. Cletus Kasady (a mugging Woody Harrelson) is the serial killer introduced at the end of the last movie and he's taken a shine to Eddie Brock (a more understandable...at times Tom Hardy) and is going to give Eddie, a down-on-his-luck reporter, the story of a lifetime: Kasady's life story and information on where he left his victims. Dark stuff. But before he does so a surprisingly mindful and remembering Venom eyes some sketches which lead to finding the victims before Cletus actually gives them up and moves Cletus on to death row. Blaming Brock Cletus bites him from within his cell and gets infected by the Venom symbiote which, fusing with the evil Cletus, turns into a red symbiote which he dubs Carnage, and Carnage Cletus does! Tremendous carnage and horrors in mere moments. For such a build up we don't see him enough to really appreciate his threat, but we do see him enough for him to live up to his name. Cletus goes out and frees his one true love and the two go are about to go on a Bonnie & Clyde run (or a "Natural Born Killers" one) but their first stop is take take revenge on some whom have harmed them in the past (including Brock and a police detective) or who stand in their way (Venom). The ending of the moving is a by the numbers comic book brawl, with some mean spirit in it, and of course happens at night. Tsk tsk. The movie is okay and for fans of the more malevolent characters there are many moments to enjoy. I thought the movie was okay, brought down mostly by so much emphasis on Cletus without developing him into a believably complex character. Cletus at one point in the film tells Brock, "You know, everyone loves a serial killer." And the film banks on this but, no, most certainly no this is not true. Everyone can love a variety of characters if they resonate with the viewer but even when they don't if they're developed can an audience be taken in by a character. Cletus Kasady was not that character here and too much time was allocated to him. Brock isn't that character either but his back and forth with the Venom symbiote, who has enough character for both of them, elevates them both and one of the things that the film does successfully is elevate Venom into his Lethal Protector title. For what I enjoyed in the film and as much as I enjoyed it I would rate it 3.5 stars. Part (B): Watching this film with my twelve-year-old son on the cusp of thirteen by my side who likes Venom mainly for the demonic voice that he emulates and little else I became uneasy for many reasons. The film is disturbing on many levels. First there is the parasitic relationship between the Venom symbiote and Eddie Brock that has Eddie, from an outsider's view, talking to himself and having frequent emotional outbursts. It's like a mental health condition but played for laughs. And then there's the way they treat each other which is often physically abusive as well as verbally abusive; again, played for laughs. Of course this is a fantasy but it's a fantasy about a relationship and while it can have deeper implications with how we treat ourselves (could make for a very good discussion with a mature crowd) it treats abuse very lightly. And while saying this I'll also say that this aspect of the film, which develops both Eddie Brock and Venom's characters, is the best part of the film--it is at the heart of them learning that they need each other and are at their best together and can work as the lethal protector. But I don't want to gloss over the troubling aspects just because this is a fantasy or just because it's "entertainment". Potential viewers, especially parents or people who have been in significantly abusive relationships, should be forewarned. But wait! There's more! This movie's villain is certainly that--a villain and unabashedly so. And as the movie has us laughing at some of the abuse it also (dementedly?) tries to generate sympathy for Cletus and his love Frances (who has superpowers and is known as the character Shriek...think Banshee from the "X-Men: First Class" movie) who are themselves the victims of abuse and cycles of violence. With how ham-handed a way Woody Harrelson delivers his Cletus character it doesn't lend itself to trusting the depth or scope of how abuse has changed and/or scarred his character. He is vile and, like Venom, likes biting off heads and is shown doing so as well as slicing and dicing and sticking appendages down whimpering public servant's throats. His Carnage is gross, grotesque, wanton and vile. There's no mistaking him for anything else other than a villain but the depth of both Cletus' and Carnage's depravity is concerning in a PG13 movie. I remember when my work which is concerned with juvenile development banned the showing of the popular and much-ballyhooed "The Dark Knight" which was rated PG13 because of the important thematic and disturbing elements and it makes me wonder if they would do the same with the much more superheroey comicish Venom/Carnage movie. I doubt it. But the points are the same: thematic elements and how they are delivered are important and these as well as other elements concerned me as my son watched it and, as the lights lifted, seeing so many other young kids many much younger than mine soaking up this fare. After leaving the theater I told my son that I thought he had just watched his first "R" rated movie even though it was PG13 and we talked about why. His response was a shrugged "Tik Tok is way worse." Great....>>>sigh<<< SO NOW the explanation for my score (and thanks if you've read this far). I didn't dislike "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" as a 2 star review suggests. I thought it was okay but certainly not great. I'm easy to please. But the movie pushed the boundaries of PG13 in so many ways from lots of language to abusive violence for laughs to extremely dark thematic elements and a dark visual style and also the devious callousness of the violence (I'll remember the poor guard having a tendril forced down his throat and the priest having his head bit off for a while though the actual view is blocked by Carnage's biting body). The studio should have embraced the violence and elements and made an R rated Venom movie but they sided with profits over personal accountability and public impact. And that...that I don't like.