Starring Tom Hardy, Chiwetel Eijofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephan Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach and Andy Serkis

Written and directed by Kelly Marcel

Sony

Eddie and Venom are on the run after the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. After briefly slipping into the MCU, they return home and decide to clear their names by blackmailing a corrupt judge Eddie knows in New York. But Knull, the creator of the symbiotes, is awake and Eddie and Venom are the key to his plans…

A full 25% of this movie does not work. Just straight up non-functional, weirdly flat storytelling. There’s a running gag about Eddie constantly losing his shoes that has no payoff, Cristo Fernández’s bartender returns and somehow has even less to do. There’s an offhand reference to ‘the Six being reconstituted’ that seems to imply Chiwetel Eijofor’s Strickland is running non-human or symbiote enhanced soldiers. Stephen Graham’s Patrick Mulligan from the last movie delivers a lot of exposition and then dies. After publicly stating that they wanted to focus in on Eddie and Venom this time the movie spends a colossal amount of time with the Moon family, a group of hippies making their way to Area 51 and Payne and Christmas, two scientists working there. Eddie straight up kills someone and the consequences all arrive in a mad rush to set the ending up. Ifans and Eijofor are not playing multiversal versions of their previous Marvel characters despite a joke about the multiverse opening the movie. It’s a mess, straight up and down and soup to nuts.

There’s 25% of this which shouldn’t work. Juno Temple and Clark Backo seem to have come in from another, more coherent movie as two scientists who are studying with and have bonded to some extent with the Symbiotes. There’s a dance number between Venom and Mrs Chen which is so goofy and yet so completely endearing that you just go with it. Knull is in the Thanos chair, and while he’s imprisoned he can send his functionally unkillable symbiote hunters through pseudo Marvel sparkle circles at will. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

There’s 50% of this which is honestly surprisingly lovely. Hardy’s twin roles have never been sweeter than they are here and giving Eddie more agency as the movie progresses pays off. He feels like a hero here, and Hardy shows us him feeling like a hero too and after spending two movies with the world’s least lucky roommate that’s such a relief. Payne and Backo are fantastic and given the amount of screen time they get, are presumably coming back for something else. Most incredible, the extended section with the Moon family is weirdly very sweet and sincere. Eddie taking a breath in the middle of the worst day of the worst life he’s ever had. There are a couple of lines he and Ifans share which are honestly really poignant and I’d be interested to see them work together again.

The action’s honestly solid too. The escalating xenophage attack that closes the movie is really smart and gives us an extended look at multiple symbiotes in action as well as a bunch of new tricks for Eddie and Venom. There’s a river chase that’s a good time too and a really strong opening fight which plays some of the same beats as Spider-Man but darker as only Venom can do. It’s also consistently very funny. A camper van sing-along is a standout but Venom’s constant stream of consciousness commentary on how much Eddie sucks gives the movie some gems. Venom bellowing ‘HE’S NOT WRONG!’ when someone insults Eddie made me laugh especially hard.

Verdict: This feels, oddly, like Borderlands. There’s a longer, weirder, more personal movie on the cutting room floor and what we’ve got plays a little like a compromise. It’s by far the weirdest this weird franchise has ever been and it tries your patience more than it ever has. But if you can, stick with it Like Venom, like Eddie, it’s worth it. 7/10

Alasdair Stuart