Robert Hammerschmidt

Lacking the soul and character of the original, Venom 2 trades earnest character development and a steady tone for wacky hijinks and one-note jokes that often fall flat. Carnage is underutilized, and relegated to "just another symbiote," but one that we are told multiple times is very powerful. Unfortunately, carnage is wasted in this movie that delivers several earnest chuckles, but does nothing to further the franchise other than the after credits scene which ties it into the larger Marvel universe.

This movie opens with a fantastic first act that opens with so much promise, but is quickly brought down with long, drolling, exposition in the second act. Then the third act flips the switch back on, the fourth back off to boring town, and the fifth rips the switch off the wall and goes over-the-top again. The movie can't decide if it wants to be an action-comedy or an action-drama and it feels like two movies that were spliced together. This would have been all well and good if there was any layoff whatsoever at the end, but without spoiling anything, it feels like the movie abruptly ends about 5-10 minutes too early. 2 stars because I put up with the flaws and enjoyed the movie, but there is a complete absence of payoff and it really just makes you question why you watched it in the first place.

16 hours in. All that matters now is getting these packages from here to there. I stole a truck so I could carry more packages. I killed a person with a package full of gas yesterday because he had a package with a ladder in it that I wanted. 5 Stars.