Most films, indeed most stories, have a clearly defined three act structure. Beginning, Middle and End. The beginning introduces the set up, the characters (or new characters in the case of a sequel), and sets the tone. The middle moves the story along, ratchets up the tension and allows the characters to grow. The end resolves the conflict and ties up any loose ends.

Venom: Let There Be Carnage makes the bold decision to do away with these principles and presents us instead with a narrative mess and jarring tonal shifts which never allow you to relax into the story it is attempting to tell.

On the face of it, it should work. Tom Hardy plays an investigate journalist, bound to an alien in a symbiotic relationship, investigating and interviewing a serial killer played by Woody Harrelson. As an elevator pitch this sounds pretty good, and the film is at it’s best when it explores these avenues. The problem is that it doesn’t explore them in any real depth.

Harrelson, as Cletus Kasady makes a convincing serial killer and there are moments of genuine brutality from him, but these scenes are few and far between. Whenever the character threatens to get interesting, they film pulls away. At one point Kasady accuses Eddie Brock of being a bad journalist, because he doesn’t; ask “why?”, but the film itself is guilty of exactly the same thing. 

Why is Kasady the person that he is? It’s alluded to, but that’s all. A throwaway comment as the film barrels relentlessly towards its climax. It could go deeper into this, but it doesn’t. Why does he choose Eddie Brock? What is the meaning of anything he says or does? Who knows? He cares? Certainly not the filmmakers.

Any investigative journalism that we might get, with Eddie slowly needling information out of Cletus, is dealt with in a manner of minutes, and every problem faced by any character has a handy piece of deus ex machina to get the past it. 

Instead it prefers to focus on the odd couple style relationship between Eddie and Venom, but even here they don’t go deep enough.

They could have made an interesting film about Venom wanting freedom from Eddie, about Venoms frustrations at being held on a leash and following Eddies rules, and, again, they touch upon this and pull away. It’s a conflict which resolved unbelievably easily, and a half-hearted attempt to crow bar character growth into the final act does not feel like a satisfactory resolution to the thread.

It doesn’t even manage to look particular interesting. It looks good, don’t get me wrong, but it just comes across as standard superhero fair. The use of motion capture adds little to the visuals, which look very similar to how they did in the original. They’ve used a filming technique designed to capture movement and expression to depict a character that has one toothy facial expression and spends the majority of the film inside someone else.

In 2018’s Venom there was fun to be had in Eddie and Venoms relationship, and in Eddie getting used to having this voice in his head, the restaurant scene being a particular highlight. The fun has gone in the sequel, and the banter between the two of them - of which there is, unfortunately, a lot - feels forced. Whereas in the first film it was fresh and often funny, here it comes across like it has been written by committee, every line focused grouped and re-written, until any of its original charm has been dulled. 

Let There Be Carnage doesn’t even particularly bother to give you a compelling supporting cast, despite boasting an array of talent. Michelle Williams isn’t given the opportunity to expand on her character, who is relegated to damsel in distress at times, Naomie Harris, who was recently excellent in the Bond franchise, is used as nothing more than a plot device, moving characters from A to B, without giving us any information about her past or who she is, and Steven Graham is wasted as the cynical cop, the only saving grace of which is the prospect of a larger role for him in future franchise films.

Overall, Venom 2 plays it safe, and for a film called Let There Be Carnage this is a problem. Thematically everything is dealt with on the surface, never daring to dig deeper. The CGI looks good, but it doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before. You never feel like the lead characters are in any real danger, and the supporting cast - despite valiant efforts by Michelle Williams and Stephen Graham - never connect with you on a level to make you care that they might be.

It is quite short though, I’ll give it that.