Venomhas become self-aware. Thefirst trailer forVenom: Let There Be Carnage, the sequel to 2018’s surprise box-office hit, opens with the sentient alien symbiote cooking breakfast for its human host Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) while singing along to “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” and ends with it threatening to eat a storeowner for failing to supply it with chocolate.Food cravingsand the introduction of Carnage (Woody Harrelson) aside,Let There Be Carnageis clearly leaning into the odd, chaotic comedy from the first film. But can the sequel recapture what felt like a happy accident in the first film?
Consider the trailer for the firstVenom. This soldSony’s Spider-Man-lessantihero film as relatively serious and gritty, with eerie music and dark visuals of Eddie becoming possessed by the alien parasite. The pre-film marketing geared audiences for a movie of gnarly horror and ‘90s-inspired badassery. Making a Spider-Man supervillain filmwithout any connection to Spider-Man or the MCUseemed odd in itself, butVenomhad failings of its own. It featured a flat and generic screenplay, filled with thin motivations and tedious exposition, where evil businessman Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed) captures the alien symbiotes before one bonds to investigative journalist Eddie Brock. The weak villain, poor pacing and dimly-shot action all madeVenoma disposable comic book film.
RELATED:‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ Looks Like It’s Repeating The First Movie’s ProblemsHowever, a saving grace ofVenomwas Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock. Hardy took the central character and bolstered him with an unhinged performance, channelling the aura of Nicolas Cage orBruce Campbell inEvil Dead II(1987), combining Brock’s mumbling New York accent with wide-eyed slapstick as he gets thrown around rooms by the symbiote inside of him.
Scenes where the symbiote marionettes Brock around in fights resemble aLaurel & Hardysketch more than traditional action scenes. Hardy conveys the character’s ridiculousness with sincerity, and this magnetic mania is what makes his parts ofVenomso riotous to watch. The scene where Brock jumps inside a restaurant’s lobster tank – improvised by Hardy himself on-set – is a prime example of the unpolished bravado that makesVenomunique.
The other core element is “Venom” itself, with the symbiote inside Eddie becoming a fun, oddly sincere double-act. Hardy also recorded the lines for the alien parasite, which has an unexpected hilarity when the ultra-deep “menacing” voice will make mundane commentary and insults towards Eddie.Venomfunctions as astrange romantic comedy, with the two halves initially forced together, having a devastating second-act break-up – Eddie literally admonishing the symbiote with “what happened to we?!” – before learning to love each other again.
This last part is only reinforced by Eddie’s ex-fiancée Anne (Michelle Williams) being transformed into a “She-Venom,” and transferring the symbiote back to Brock with an extended kiss. The next scene contains the biggest audience guffaw, as Venom now decides to save the Earth from his species alien invasion, admitting in his gravelly voice “on my planet I am kind of a loser.”
It’s possible this chaotic comedy was all intentional.Venom’s director Ruben Fleischer did makeZombieland(2009), and the film does contain “traditional” jokes. For instance, after dispatching a squad of soldiers in a tall building, the symbiote encourages Eddie to jump out the window. A hard edit shows Eddie taking the elevator instead, with the symbiote gruffly intoning “Pussy.” The infamous “turd in the wind” monologue which endsVenomalso demonstrates its sillier attitudes, although its debatable whether the filmmakers knew it was silly or thought it was actually threatening.
Regardless of intent, however, the joy of findingVenoman “ironic” watch was baked into the film being sold as straightforwardly serious. Its becauseVenomwas buried beneath a grim “badass” marketing campaign that discovering it was actually a goofy buddy-comedy felt so special. But now the secret is out.Let There Be Carnageembraces this absurd double-act energy, and raises the question of whether the new director (Lord of the RingsandBlack Panther(2018)alum Andy Serkis) can recapture the same strange alchemy of the first film.
Susan Sontag defined “camp” as “a seriousness that fails,” and“So Bad It’s Good” cinema(whichVenomarguably falls into) exists in this paradigm of being unaware of its own failings.The Room(2003) is a classic example, being so funny and compelling because it was unintentionally bad, andits creator Tommy Wiseauwas uncompromised in his vision. After Wiseau caught ontoThe Room’s cult status, he began trying to be funny on purpose, losing much of the magic. People finding the firstVenomunintentionally hilarious may be concerned it’s now doing so on purpose.
Of course, this isn’t always true. Many properties actually improve once they recognize and embrace their own absurdity, and make that marginal silliness the center.Legends of Tomorrowstarted off relatively safe and toned-down, before growing more outlandish and self-aware as the seasons’ progressed. Similarly,theFast and the Furiousfranchisebegan as fairly grounded street-racing films, but have become increasingly unhinged with high stakes and over-the-top impossible stunts. TheVenomfilms won’t necessarily be harmed by having its big, scary tongue planted its cheek, and could even benefit by ditching the boring, generic plotlines and having its chaotic comedy become more central.
Nor doesLet There Be Carnage’s trailer mean the whole film will be winking self-awareness. The sequel may strike the balance between a straight-faced exterior shell and the fun humor lurking underneath. The trailer needed to capitalize on this singular aura. But audiences can never seeVenomfor the first time again, soLet There Be Carnagemust contend with viewers knowing what to expect instead of being able to subvert them (intentionally or not) in the same way. Hopefully,Venombecoming self-aware does mean it will eat itself.
