An offspring with more Venom
A posh lady who lives an exclusive life falling in love with a freelance journalist who rides a motor bike, wears denim and whose life is in shambles is nothing that anyone cannot fathom. True love could overcome all odds in life and that is told time and again in fairytales.
Finding her journalist fiancé who also has a cancer is possessed by an alien who eats human brains is just too much for a classy woman to comprehend. We saw all these mishaps and escapades in the movie ‘Venom’ not very long ago. Even before that we saw ‘Venom’ making its maiden appearance in ‘Spiderman 3’. And now the Anti-hero is back with a vengeance. ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ in theatres now tells the story of Venom accidentally creating an offspring named Carnage and finally confronting it in a raging encounter to maintain the reign.
Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock (Venom) in this sequel too with beautiful Michelle Williams (Anne Weying of ‘Oz: The Great and Powerful’ fame) as his ex-lover. Williams projects her fairytale disposition in this movie too with a difference to suit the context.
As told earlier, the first Venom film of this franchise had substance. It threw light on romance, heartbreak, loneliness, recognition and also talked of power and fury. Venom, the symbiote from outer space selecting Eddie Brock as its host did cure him of his cancer in the first movie.
The audiences throughout the world were thrilled to watch the story of an uncanny Venom teaming up with Eddie Brock the journalist. The movie had catchy dialogues too. In one instance Venom tells Brock that it too was a loner like Brock in the world that it came from. (Marvel states that there are various symbiotes from outer space and one of them is Venom).
However, the sequel ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ takes a wrong turn in a bid to bringing more entertainment to the audiences. A fraction of alien symbiote Venom finding a fresh ‘host’ breathes life to a Red Venom who yells, “Let there be carnage!”
Meanwhile, the original Venom desperately wants to eat human brains…brains of the bad guys to be precise. Brock insists that it only eats chickens which is provided in plenty. Venom cries he is starving without human brains to consume and is compelled to leave Brock’s body for a fresh host.
Then there is the serial killer Kasady (Woody Harrelson of ‘Zombieland’ fame) who invites Eddie to his prison cell to give him an interview. Any investigative journalist would love to hear the life-story of a serial killer who is in death row, from the horse’s mouth and Eddie Brock is no exception. Eddie as usual invites trouble by visiting Kasady.
“People love serial killers. All my secrets will lay bare”, says Kasady to Eddie. Eventually Kasady becomes Red Venom Aka Carnage.
A she-mutant making her appearance is also new to the story. Prof Ex-Zavier of X-Men would be flabbergasted to see the number of mutants mushrooming in the Marvel Universe now. Barrison (Naomie Harris) a mutant appearing as serial killer Kasady’s love interest, wreaks havoc along with ‘Carnage’.
Many Post Covid 19 Hollywood movies seem to be made in a hurry and ‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’ follows suit. In the process the makers tend to tarnish reputation of Marvel superheroes and Ant-heroes that were carefully created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Marvel filmmakers (especially the young directors who did not read Marvel Comics in the 1970s era) lately made the Hulk talk, they made Iron Man die and they let loose Spiderman’s alter-ego Venom. Hopefully they will not make the blind lawyer Matt Murdock (Daredevil) with enhanced senses to have perfect vision in a future movie.
True, Marvel Universe has to evolve with times. However, it has to be handled with caution to attract the true-believers of upcoming generations and also the ardent ones who are ageing now.