Tom Hardy's sequel is chaotic & flawed but fun; "Venom: Let There Be Carnage" delivers some more of what works - Eddie and Venom's dynamic - though everything around them remains quite messy
they were funny in the first movie. In this, they're tiresome; The movie meanders. It goes a long while without revealing its story; Everything about this movie is about killing time, and time is killed slowly, painfully and pointlessly
the "Venom" sequel contains a fun bit at the end – one that should send Marvel acolytes and/or intellectual-property fetishists into a state of pure bliss; Ugly, cheap and dumb-but-not-good-dumb, the film is a throwaway kind of trashy nothingness
it doesn't have that sense of joyful discovery and gleeful mischief that the first film did, because it's obviously now a comedy on purpose. But the Venom/Eddie dynamic remains the best buddy action comedy going these days
amid the drudgery came moments of amusing, head-scratching weirdness, and while "Let There Be Carnage" is more confident in exploring those out-there qualities, this sequel is still a dispiritingly weak outing for one of Marvel's cultiest characters
"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" winds up serving as a violent, sloppy, yet entertaining battle through couples counseling for the pair; If you're in the mood for silly, this sequel nails it. But for an epic showdown among monsters, it lacks bite