Venom: Let There Be Carnage

Official Australian release date: 25/11/21. Viewed: 19/11/21.
Director: Andy Serkis
Actors: Tom Hardy, Woody Harrelson, Michelle Williams, Naomie Harris
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

‘Venom: Let There Be Carnage’, the second non-MCU Venom film, sees alien symbiote Venom and Eddie Brock (Hardy) learning how to share the same body. The film introduces Cletus Kasady (Harrelson) as a disturbed killer and his partner Frances (Harris) early on, before focusing on the odd-couple relationship of Venom/Eddie for the first act, which is quite fun. Anne (Williams) and Dan (Scott) are back as Eddie’s ex and her new partner.

Mulligan (Graham) is the cop trying to figure out what’s going on with Eddie and has a link to Kasady & Frances. Besides Tom & Woody – both good to see having fun with their characters – no-one really gets much screen time, but things move along very quickly (only ~90min total), as the final showdown when Kasady becomes “Carnage” inevitably happens.  

Some solid CGI, which is required, but a poor soundtrack and a bit of a nothing plot. Feel like we needed more Dan & Mrs Chen (Lu) – the comedy aspects are done quite well and some of the action is good, but there’s nothing really new or too exciting. End credits scene is worth waiting for.

Overall: Again, fun enough, but nothing substantial

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.

 

No Time To Die

Official Australian release date: 11/11/21. Viewed: 14/11/21.
Director: Cary Fukunaga
Actors: Daniel Craig, Lea Seydoux, Rami Malek, Lashana Lynch
Genre: Action / Thriller
Rating: M

‘No Time To Die’ is Daniel Craig’s fifth, and final, time playing James Bond, and puts him up there as the  second best Bond (after Sean Connery). This film follows closely from ‘Spectre’, even though six years have passed in real life, and adds more relevance to that film’s plot. The opening is interesting, as it delves into Madeleine (Seydoux)’s background, introduces Safin (Malek) and only then do we get to present day Bond and Madeleine in Italy (since Bond has “retired”) and the titles (average song).

This film has a great ensemble cast, with Felix (Wright) back for his 3^rd time, Paloma (de Armas) having a fun CIA cameo in Cuba, Nomi (Lynch) as the next-gen 007 who grows on you, Primo (Benssalah) as the henchman and Blofeld (Waltz), Q (Whishaw), Tanner (Kinnear), Moneypenny (Harris) and M (Fiennes) all back. I find some of the most enjoyable aspects are when Bond works/interacts with the MI6 team – Q, M, Tanner & Moneypenny – rather than as a lone wolf.

While long, it’s a pretty well-made save-the-world story, with Safin having some sort of nanobot WMD, with high stakes and a fair bit of heart, as you hope Bond and Madeleine end up together, unlike Vesper. There’s good intrigue and great locations, including Norway, Jamaica and the Japanese island finale (although filmed on the Faroe Islands). Plenty of excellent stunts and fight scenes, with a satisfactory ending. Thanks for the fun 15 years Daniel Craig! Looking forward to seeing what’s next…

Overall: Fitting finale for the Craig-era of 007.

Gav's Rating: 4 stars.

Eternals

Official Australian release date: 4/11/21. Viewed: 3/11/21.
Director: Chloé Zhao
Actors: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh
Genre: Action / Sc-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Eternals’ is both a Marvel superhero film, but also not – unlike some other MCU films having lesser-known superheroes, this is almost a parallel universe, or a ‘What If?’ episode, with 10 new Eternals (good immortal aliens) introduced to us in 5,000BC that help save humans from Deviants (bad aliens), sent by Celestials (big aliens). The film spends most of it’s time in 2021, but has plenty of flashbacks over the previous millennia.

As they’re not mainstream heroes, they all seem to have a generic power, with no-one being too special. As with all ensemble casts, not everyone gets much screen-time and it takes a while to figure out who does what and how they fit in. For the record, Ajak (Hayek) is the leader, with Sersi (Chan; the heart of the film) and Ikaris (Madden) essentially acting as the leads/love interests. The next most screen-time goes to Sprite (McHugh, the “kid”) and Kingo (Nanjiani, a little comedic relief). Then there’s Thena (Jolie, barely used), Phastos (Tyree Henry), Makkari (Ridloff), Druig (Keoghan, such a punchable face) and Gilgamesh (Dong-seok). Once you figure out who’s who, it’s basically over!

There’s not really a “big bad guy” as such, and the whole Celestials thing is pretty laughable, but if you go with it, there’s still quite a bit that doesn’t really come together until the end. The final 30min or so is pretty exciting, but there’s certainly a sizeable lull in the middle. It certainly has it’s moments, with some good CGI, but the stakes never seem quite as high as they should and the tone is often a bit too dour, with not as much fun and effervescence as I’d expect. The post-credits scenes create more questions for the next set of films to answer.

Overall: Not bad, just a bit strained

Gav's Rating: 3 stars.