Spider-Man canon has always produced excellent villains - Green Goblin, Doc Ock, Mysterio and more.
One of the most compelling is Venom - a parasitic alien (symbiote) who finds a host in reporter Eddie Brock.
Viewers first saw Venom in 2007's much-maligned Spider-Man 3, and we didn't really get a chance to see how great a character he could be.
That changed with 2018's Venom, where Tom Hardy (Inception) stepped into Brock's shoes and the symbiote was less of a villain and more of an antihero trying to go straight.
While the overall plot of the first film was pretty standard, Hardy's performance and dedication to the comedy (particularly in a scene involving a lobster tank) made it a fun time and worthy of revisiting. While not up to the standard of its MCU counterparts, Venom was still entirely okay.
That brings us to Venom: Let There Be Carnage, the sequel which follows through on the previous film's tease of Woody Harrelson's character.
Harrelson plays serial killer Cletus Kasady, who ends up sharing his body with another symbiote, Carnage.
Carnage doesn't follow the rules of polite society that Brock has enforced for Venom - he feeds off Kasady's psychopathy is altogether a more villainous character. Brock and Venom need to stop the new symbiotic pair before all hell breaks loose - if only they could get along.
Once again, the plot of the film is okay at best, but it's the performances of Hardy (who is so good and funny in all his scenes arguing with Venom, whether that's just in his own head or with the sticky black symbiote face-to-face) and new villain Shreik (Moonlight's Naomie Harris, excellent as always) that really stand out.
Michelle Williams (Fosse/Verdon) is back as Brock's ex Anne, a role she's not particularly suited for, while Anne's new partner Dan (Scott Reid) also gets some great one-liners.
The film is fun and quick at just over 90 minutes, a good effort from director Andy Serkis.
But what fans will be really excited about is the mid-credits sequence. It has massive implications for the future of the character and some other Marvel heroes.
Don't leave the cinema before you catch this scene.
