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Created Jan 13, 2022 06:31AM PST • Edited Feb 04, 2023 08:43PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Very Good 3.5

   Second-tier Marvel is first-class entertainment in the form of the 2021 Venom: Let There Be Carnage, especially given Tom Hardy being directed by Andy Serkis. The legendary Serkis knows his way around tangible superego characters, having been Gollum in Lord of the Rings and Caesar in Planet of the Apes.

   Hardy’s CGI superego character is the eponymous Venom, a supernatural killer who cohabits Hardy’s body. This schizophrenic setup is a rich canvas for the legendary superactor to explore. His particular set of skills includes showcasing hyper-intelligent inner insanity. He mints another primo one in Eddie Brock / Venom.

   Venom: Let There Be Carnage is an old fashioned, bravura movie, albeit with 2021 CGI FX. To wit and notwithstanding its batshit craziness, moviestars deliver numerous turns of psychological depth: head tilted up, all of a sudden, or down, a turn of the lip, breath caught in throat. A classic example is when Michelle Williams suddenly coos at an Asian woman, who then reveals a deeper side we didn’t realize she possessed.

   So, there’s lots to like in this monstrously vile comic book tale. Is it for you? Ask yourself two questions:

   Jonesing for Tom Hardy acting crazy, or some Andy Serkis style inventiveness? Let There Be Carnage

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Tom Hardy’s canon now includes Eddie Brock / Venom from this movie. He’s as compulsively watchable as a man literally living with violent insanity as he was as Bronson and as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Very Good 3.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    3 Filmic Observations

    • Marvel quality character development, so much so that you care about the CGI characters in their de rigeur cataclysmic battle.
    • Well done giving each of three villains their hated heroic antagonists.
    • Goth extraordinaire to open. Ravencroft school.

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Really Great 4.5
15. Content

16. Edge

    Horrid 4.0

    Let There Be Carnage is aptly if theatrically titled, given that the gore is toned down for the PG-13 rating. Yes, there’s monstrous violence, but the aftermath is bowdlerized. That’s how you get teens into the theater.

17. Sex Titillating 2.1

18. Violence Monstrous 5.0

19. Rudeness Vile 5.0

21. Reality

    Supernatural 4.0

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Supernatural 4.0

24. Physical Fantasy 5.0