WITH HUMOR, VENOM 2 LEANS INTO RELATIONSHIPS

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” is best when it’s not trying to be a comic book movie.

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That fact may not bode especially well for future spinoffs and integrations within the so-called “Spider-Verse,” but one senses that director Andy Serkis, screenwriter Kelly Marcel and star/ producer Tom Hardy are aware of this weakness. And they made the smart choice to lean into the oddball relationship between Eddie Brock and his alien symbiote Venom.

There is nothing remotely necessary about this sequel, which is itself a fruitless line of judgment to get into when it comes to any movie let alone franchise building blocks. But that also seems to free “Venom 2” to get weirder and more irreverent than the first movie, when it seemed like no one could decide how seriously they were taking themselves. Turns out “not very” was the right answer.