The movie Venom: Let There Be Carnage, directed by Andy Serkis, is a fun, action-packed film with interesting characters. This is Serkis’s third time directing and he does not disappoint.  He takes a movie about a antihero and a serial killer and gives it heart. Each character has interpersonal relationships that drive their decisions. All together, I would say the main theme of this film was love. Venom and Eddie develop a bond more in this movie than their last on-screen appearance. They start the movie constantly arguing and at one point even physically fighting each other. By the end of the film, they are on much better terms with themselves and each other.

Carnage as a villain is insane. Cletus Kasady starts as a sociopathic serial killer on death row. But after acquiring the symbiote, he escapes the prison and begins to wreak havoc on San Francisco. This is where that heart comes in- Cletus’s main motivation in this movie is finding his former lover, Shriek.

In terms of visuals, Carnage is beautifully designed and the CGI is unbelievable. There are multiple scenes where you can see the symbiote moving and swirling around Cletus’s body. The design is also very comic-accurate and is probably the best way they could have portrayed him. With the character of Venom, I feel like they could have made some updates from the last one because it’s fundamentally the same design. Though he was still very entertaining on-screen.

The acting from both Tom Hardy and Woody Harrelson is fantastic. Serkis said that when filming the movie Tom would record the audio for Venom and then play it back via earpiece during scenes and use it to act with. And Woody does a great job of making you afraid of Cletus, so when he becomes Carnage, you know he’s really dangerous.

I really liked the way this movie developed Eddie and Venom’s couple-like relationship and it was interesting to see how they learn to understand each other more throughout the film. I think that was a big contribution to the success of this film. However, I didn’t like the lack of development for other characters such as Carnage, Shriek, or Detective Mulligan. They all get little-to-no backstory or reasoning for their actions.

In comparison to the previous movie, it was equally as good. I felt that the two films compliment each other well, and are good in different ways. While the first movie centered around character building and standing up for the little guy, this movie centers around love and friendship.  Both movies highlight these themes very well; however, there are some points throughout both films where the writing could be better, with some lines not coming across quite as they’re supposed to. Sometimes just sounding off or out of place.

Overall, I really enjoyed this film and even though the storyline isn’t the best it is still a good movie. I would rate this movie a 3.5/5 and would definitely recommend that you go see that when you have the chance.