Preamble

Venom was a B-movie bore that was occasionally woken up by Tom Hardy’s central performance. It was the kind of work that had the same daring and go for broke quality that many of the performances in Tim Burton’s Batman movies had. However, due to the film being a hit at the box office, audiences have been graced with a sequel. Does the film’s second trailer make you excited to see the film? Let me know in the comments below.

Brief Thoughts on a Trailer

To its credit, the full trailer for Venom: Let There Be Carnage knows what it’s selling to its audience. It fully doubles down on the comedic hijinks and conflict that Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) has with the Symbiote that overtook his body. This time, there appears to be more shading due to the creature wanting to be a “Lethal Protector,” who preys on and eats criminals. By comparison, Brock just wants to keep a low profile in his day job as an investigative journalist.

The other aspect the trailer promotes in spades is Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). Teased at the end of the first film, the character becomes the infamous and iconic- Carnage. Some of the trailer’s best shots come from the many comic-accurate images of the fully unleashed red monster, who wants to wreak havoc on Eddie’s life. The trailer also intriguingly teases Naomie Harris’s character, whose place in the quasi family dynamic between Venom and Carnage is being kept under wraps.

A part of me is excited to see the film. As someone who grew up on the Spider-Man 90s Animated Series, Spider-Man PS1 game and subsequently the Spidey comics; I’m always going to be a little eager to see Symbiotes duke it out in live-action. However, I’m also aware that this is a sequel to a film that I did not like. And many of the elements that pervaded the 2018 movie could very well be embraced and amplified. Even the casting of Harrelson feels as cynical as the trailer’s slowed-down version of “One is the loneliest number.”

With his extensive experience of motion capture, Andy Serkis could be what tips the scales for me. I can only hope that he enlivens the digital characters with some humanity and interest.