On Oct. 1 2021, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage”, the sequel to “Venom (2018)” was released to theaters to a positive reception. Venom 2 was a fun movie that is visually easy to follow. Most of it is action and is much less story driven.

Like the first one, it rides off the fun character dynamic of its main characters Eddie Brock and Venom, now living what could roughly be described as a domestic household life while Eddie attempts to lay low after the damage Venom dealt to his life and the city in the previous installment. (Slight Spoiler Alert) It also follows famed serial killer Cletus Kassidy, who is now on death row, but not before an interview with Eddie. After the interview, Venom finds out where Cletus buried his victims’ bodies’ and Eddie, being a journalist, writes an article on it, which revives his failing career. Cletus has one last talk with Eddie before his death by lethal injection, during which he aggravates Venom into attacking him. This allowed him to bite Eddie’s hand and ingest some of the symbiote, causing him to become Carnage and survive his execution. Meanwhile, Eddie and Venom have a falling out due Venom’s actions at the last conversation with Cletus. The rest of the movie is the two coming together again to become the “Lethal Protector” in order to beat Cletus. (End Of Spoilers)

This movie doesn’t attempt to push a message about family or friendship, and its main characters, Eddie and Venom are actually pretty mean to each other at times, which is luckily offset by their moments of legitimate teamwork and cooperation. Eddie wants to live as normal a life as possible, whilst Venom wants to live the way he wants, even at the expense of others. The dynamic between the two is amazing, it is easy to see why Eddie is upset with Venom, but Venom is almost never an outright annoying or bad character to see.

Most if not all of his actions have good intentions, mostly to help Eddie in life. They just do not always work out. While the movie does not follow the original comic very closely, it has incredible pacing and does not distract the viewer with unnecessary banter or side plots. Everything that happens either happens because of Eddie and Venom, or as a result from the first movie, such as Eddie’s previous love, Anne Weying, now becoming engaged to a doctor. This movie has a comedic style very similar to the first, with Venom stating very inappropriate things in response to stuff Eddie hears, a nice sense of consistency is felt.

Overall, whether you saw the first movie or not, this one is a very enjoyable sequel that gives you exactly what you expect and want.