Venom: Let There Be Carnage - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Venom: Let There Be Carnage



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
Let me start off this review by saying that I’m one of the people who actually really enjoyed 2018’s Venom. I get that it wasn’t the comic book origin of Venom and Eddie Brock due to the fact that Sony wasn’t sure whether Venom would even be a viable character. So, instead of introducing Venom in a Spiderman film as the black suit, the Sony executives figured they could make him his own continuity with his own origins story so as not to pollute the Sony/MCU timeline. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for that decision, Venom was a solid enough hit that it not only garnered enough attention for a sequel, BUT the executives realized that the fan favorite anti-hero was popular enough to get back into the MCU. The only problem was, they didn’t have a way in for him, and he wasn’t associated with Spiderman. But needless to say, as Dr. Malcolm from Jurassic Park once said “Life...umm,...ummm. Finds a way”.

After Venom and Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) had their run in with Riot and the other symbiotes in the last film, they have been laying low. Venom is craving brains as usual and Eddie is doing his best to keep the alien symbiote under control. However, their on and off again relationship comes to a head when Brock is given the story of a life time. Interview serial killer Kletus Casady (Woody Harrelson) who is on death row and ready to give up his life’s story. However, Brock undercuts Kletus’s story and ends up the serial killer off enough that the two get into a bit of a tussle. A tussle that ends up dropping a single fragment of Venom into Kletus’s bloodstream, spawning a mitosis like spawn of Venom who decides to use the psychotic Kletus as a host.

Now there are more than one symbiote powered monster on Earth once more. Kletus (now dubbed Carnage) is off on a mission to find his ex girlfriend Shriek (Naomi Harris) as well as lay some SERIOUS smakdown on his symbiote daddy. Now it’s up to Venom and Brock to use their unique abilities as a perfect symbiotic match to tear apart their own progeny, and possibly rescue ex girlfriend Anne (Michelle Williams) and possibly the entire world from being eaten by a psychotic symbiote with out a sense of morality.

Before I go on, let me say that this is probably one of the most impressive villain fights of all time. Carnage is one of Spiderman and Venom’s MOST powerful opponents. Not only a really super powerful symbiote, but one who has been influenced by Kletus Casady’s mental issues to the point of utter insanity. Even in the comics Carnage is such a ferocious villain that it usually takes Spidey and Venom together to even take him down. That being said, the movie drops the ball on many aspects of the character. Woody is phenomenal as a raging psychopath like Kletus, but the show runners insist on making them two separate characters, much like Venom and Brock, instead of the symbiotic SINGLE character they become in theory. Not only that, the comedy of Venom and Brock’s interaction in the first movie turned out to be such an utter success, that they amped it up to level 11 here. I’m not talking some good old fashioned jokes to keep the plot moving, but instead the entire film is one non stop wacky buddy comedy between an alien with his host. After the first 2-3 jokes it started getting old really fast.

There are some good points to the film. Tom Hardy does solid as a worn out brock, and Woody is PHENOMENAL as a raging psychopath (almost TOO good in the role). I like that they tried to include the 5 part super villain team from “Maximum Carnage” with Shriek (excepting Demogoblin, Doppleganger and Carrion), although Naomi’s character is drastically under used, and twisted outside of her normal persona. I also liked the wink and nod to the inclusion of the Symbiote Toxin for a future comic (cue in to Detective Mulligan near the end) AND the extra credits draws us into the main MCU so that Venom can join up with Tom Holland’s character later. That being said, Venom: Let Their Be Carnage wastes a lot of the potential it has with the characters, and ends up being a lot less enjoyable than it’s predecessor.




Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, some strong language, disturbing material and suggestive references




4K Video: Video:

Let Their Be Carnage was taken from a digital master at 2K, but still manages to make for one impressive 4K UHD experience. The film has a sort of muted and monochromatic look with cool blues, dark grays and deep maroons and blues as it’s visual aesthetics. The production is razor sharp, showing head and shoulders improvement over the excellent Blu-ray, as well as great HDR10 application. Colors are richer and deeper, especially with the animated Carnage and his tentacles. There’s almost no banding and black detail levels are superb. I noticed some significant improvement in the deeper darker shadowy areas than I did even in the theaters! It’s a great disc and a solid encode.








Audio:

The Dolby Atmos track is a real tweaker here too. It really benefits from being cranked up and letting it rip and roar across all speakers. At lower levels it seems a bit anemic, but once cranked up a few DB the track opens up and lets off the shackles. I would categorize this Atmos mix as a very balanced mix and not a stupid bass front mix. Bass is there in spades, adding to the weight of Venom and Carnage crunching across rooftops, but it isn’t one of those films that just shakes every rafter with every movement. It’s subtle, balanced, but powerful when needed. The end battle between Eddie/Venom and Kletus/Carnage is pretty stinking epic, with some awesome overhead use as the two jump around the rafters of the church, as well as plenty of surround and LFE usage to keep things interesting.







Extras:

• Outtakes & Bloopers
• 6 Deleted Scenes
• Eddie & Venom: The Odd Couple: What happens when two beings inhabit one body? A whole lot of chaos. Tom Hardy, Andy Serkis, and the team of filmmakers talk all things Eddie and Venom.
• Sick and Twisted Cletus Kasady: Imagining this iconic and psychotic comic book villain for screen with Woody Harrelson, director Andy Serkis, and the production team.
• Concept to Carnage: Trace the design and animation of Carnage from comic book image to screen symbiotic.
• Let There Be… Action: Go on the set and experience the action of how Venom: Let There Be Carnage takes shape. From concept to stage, from green screen to film screen, follow the making of the film and see the intense stunts that were captured.

Final Score:
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Venom: Let There Be Carnage feels a lot to me like wasted potential. I went into the theater actually enjoying myself a good bit, but feeling like a lot was left on the table. One of my biggest frustrations that is the bane of almost ALLLLL comic book movies is the propensity to kill off a legendary villain in just a short 90 minute time frame. Gone is all of the world building and character arcs that happen in a comic book, but instead shortened to a little bitty vignette in a movie, never to be seen from again. This is what happened with one of Spidey’s and Venom’s biggest nemesis with nary a bit of a fanfare (though I honestly busted up laughing at the near 4th wall breaking of Venom using his “lethal protector” line from the comics over and over. That was one joke I really got a kick out of). The 4K UHD disc is very very solid, with great audio and video and a moderate array of extras.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Naomi Harris, Michelle Williams, Stephen Graham
Directed by: Andy Serkis
Written by: Kelly Marcel, Tom Hardy
Aspect Ratio: .1.85:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), French (Canadian) DTS-HD MA 5.1, Portuguese DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish, Thai DD 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Indonesian, Korean, Malay, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Thai, Vietnamese
Studio: Sony
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 97 minutes
Blu-Ray Release December 14th, 2021

Recommendation: Rental

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Took my 15yo to this in the theater. I enjoyed the first one. I was looking at my watch 20 minutes into this one.