"Venom 2": great sequel to the comedy blockbuster about anti-hero

A year and a half after the events of the first part, reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy), possessed by the intelligent alien symbiote Venom, tries to adjust to a new life with superpowers and the constant desire of the "roommate" to bite people's heads off. They cook breakfast together, go shopping and dating. Brock wants to revive his journalistic career, so he interviews ruthless serial killer Cletus Cassidy (Woody Harrelson), who is accidentally possessed by the evil red symbiote Carnage. He escapes from prison right during his own execution and wreaks havoc on the city. Now only the main characters can stop him.

In addition to Brock/Venom, his girlfriend Anne Weing (Michelle Williams) and Cassidy/Carnage, the writers have included in the plot a crazy supervillain named Frances Barrison (Naomie Harris), nicknamed Shriek. Her superpower is to create sound waves, which she can use to levitate, throw and stun enemies.

Despite the quite "superhero" budget of $110 million, the timing of the second part was only 96 minutes. At first glance, it seems rather short, even shorter than the first part, but the director has quite a logical explanation: the audience is already familiar with the hero, it was necessary to introduce only Karnage, and all the rest of the time to give the action.

And let's face it, everything in terms of action, special effects and blockbuster atmosphere in the movie succeeded at the highest level. The crucial here was the ability to work with digital characters of director Andy Serkis, known for his roles of fully animated characters: from Gollum in "Lord of the Rings" to Caesar in the "Planet of the Apes" trilogy.

A separate perk of the film is the outstanding performance of Tom Hardy, who obviously had a lot of fun playing a lot of comic scenes and dialogues with both his alter ego and his opponents. The encounter and tangle between Venom and Karnage before the final battle is enough - this episode would have looked quite natural in a sitcom. By the way, Hardy not only played the main role, but participated in the work on the script, developed the storyline of Eddie Brock.

As a result, "Venom 2" became the most successful film of last year at the Russian box office, gathering more than $ 500 million worldwide - the seventh result in 2021 at the world box office.