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movie review - Venom: Let There Be Carnage

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Kokubunji, 2022.07.09

In this sequel to "Venom", a sloppy sci-fi/super-hero movie featuring a human and his alien "parasite". Oddly enough, they made a sequel and are continuing to ignore the original purpose of the Venom character, which was as a counterpart to Spider-Man.

If the first plot felt made-up-on-the-spot, this one has far more emotional content. The bad guy is another human/symbiote pairing, and a dangerous mix of aggrieved and unstable. Naturally, the two halves click immediately and do maximum damage at every turn, while our hero/heros struggle to work together. And naturally, the human half of the opposition has a love interest, and she's just as unhinged as he is.

This movie is significantly better than the original, perhaps because it's trying to stay in one lane rather than weave between sci-fi and heroics.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

If you are going to tell people the truth, you have to make them laugh, or they'll kill you.

—Oscar Wilde