“Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” directed by Andy Serkis, is a surprisingly fun sequel compared to the first movie, which had a meandering pace and terrible villains. “Let There Be Carnage,” on the other hand, may not have the most amazing plot, but is very fast-paced and action-packed. However, it has some severe pacing issues that stifle its attempts at fleshing out new characters. 

The movie stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock, a boneheaded journalist who is the host of Venom, an alien parasite that grants him superhuman abilities. Woody Harrelson portrays the main villain: Cletus Kassidy, a narcissistic serial killer who also hosts an alien parasite, one which he has dubbed “Carnage.” 

I had high expectations for Harrelson’s performance as Kassidy, seeing as he is a seasoned actor with a variety of roles under his belt, but the quality of his acting was not as good as I was expecting. It was a little disappointing, as his character was not fleshed out at all. 

Hardy does a great job, however. He is a professional, and his acting is always on top. His character continues going through the metamorphosis that started in the first Venom, which is partly why Hardy did better than Harrelson; he simply had more time to develop his character.

The visual effects were incredible. The complex designs of both symbiotes were realized in some pretty intricate CGI work, which at this point in superhero movies is not an unusual trait, but is admirable from Sony, as they do not have the endless resources of Disney or Warner Brothers. 

“Let There Be Carnage” definitely tried to be off-the-wall crazy in its tone. The movie made some pretty bizarre choices, such as an animated sequence that comes out of nowhere, and it certainly had several surprises.

The post credits scene had huge implications for many upcoming projects, and it added to the tone. However, “Let There Be Carnage”’s pacing was pretty  manic, which is not a good thing for a movie that tries to also have a consistent storyline alongside the craziness. 

The film was a short 97 minutes, and this presents several issues to story pacing and character development. Neither Kassidy nor his insane supervillain fiancé Shriek (played by Naomie Harris) received the character development they deserved in the runtime; the film’s pacing was very fast and felt like the final battle came way too quickly.

All in all, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage” was a fun movie with plenty of crazy moments, but it needed an extra 30 minutes or so to be anything more than that. It needed more time to give its new characters real development, and as is, these pacing issues significantly hampered its efforts to tell a consistent story.