Thanks to what's been shown in the trailers, Venom: Let There Be Carnage already looks much better than 2018's Venom, in everything from tone and story to its CGI for the symbiotes. The first Venom movie was aa beast even stranger than its eponymous alien, blending elements of body horror with juvenile humor, some outright bizarre moments, and attempts at a more straight-laced superhero drama with romance, heroism, and all that comes with it.
The end result was a mixed bag - or rather, like Venom and Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), it felt like very separate, disparate entities forced to share one vessel. When Venom tried to play things more straight and serious, the film didn't work; when it leaned into its silly, outlandish elements and let Hardy really cut loose, then it was more wildly entertaining than it perhaps had any right to be. Still, for all of its qualities, it was clear there were things a sequel would need to fix.
Luckily, it seems to be doing exactly that. The Andy Serkis-directed sequel is leaning much more into the odd couple relationship between the symbiote and Eddie, as well as the silly comedy and creepy horror elements that worked so well in the first film. It's clearly taking these ideas further: Eddie/Venom is given even greater focus, and there's a clear sense of them as two distinct personalities but also working as one whole. Likewise, the moments with Carnage (Woody Harrelson) and Shriek (Naomie Harris) in the Venom 2 trailer promise it won't be holding back when it comes to its villains, but going all-out weird, big, gross, tapping more into the horror genre, and, well, unleashing pure carnage.
While not everything looks perfect movie, it is enhancing the parts that worked so well in the first movie and doing away with those that didn't. It's not just in terms of tone and character that Venom: Let There Be Carnage is an improvement, but its CGI as well. Riz Ahmed was sadly underused as Riot, and another issue was that the VFX for the Marvel symbiote didn't work: in particular, when Venom and Riot fought, the result was that they became indistinguishable, leaving the fight scenes incredibly messy. The CGI in Venom 2 is quite possibly still being worked on, since it doesn't release until October, but it already looks better. Even with the dark trailer (perhaps to hide any wonkiness), Carnage looks much more impressive - he's clearly very distinct from Venom, and there's a greater sense of detail and texture. Venom himself looks better and less rubbery as well, all of which likely stems from Serkis' own expertise with visual effects.
Given the symbiote vs symbiote fights are clearly a key part of Venom: Let There Be Carnage's story, then it's crucial to get this right - a lot of movies have an over-reliance on CG, but it's obviously very necessary here, so it's good to see that the Venom 2 trailer is already showing it will work. It still needs to get a lot more right in terms of its character and story, of course (there's still not enough of Michelle Williams, for instance), but based on the two trailers so far there's a lot of cause to be optimistic for the Sony sequel.
