Venom: The Last Dance review

VENOM: THE LAST DANCE: 

A VERY GENERIC “LAST DANCE” FOR SPIDER-MAN CHARACTER! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

COLUMBIA PICTURES AND MARVEL

Tom Hardy in Venom: The Last Dance

 

            Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Bikeriders) and the symbiote are back in Venom: The Last Dance, the latest installment of Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, and third and final chapter of the Venom trilogy based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The film is directed by Kelly Marcel, who penned the scripts for 2018’s Venom and 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage in her directorial debut. 

            I did not like the first Venom when I initially saw it back in 2018 and felt it completely missed the point of the character and lacked the complex themes and depth of its comics counterpart, but in recent years I have grown to appreciate it and its sequel as “So Bad They’re Good” movies. Though I think even when I first saw it I at least praised Tom Hardy’s performance as charismatic journalist with an alien parasite, Eddie Brock. 

            The second film, Venom: Let There Be Carnage I thought was a slight improvement over the first and attempted to be a little darker that time. Unfortunately, it was bogged down by choppy editing that probably left a lot of crucial things on the cutting room floor. 

            Now we have the third film released after the disastrous Sony Spider-Man Universe entries, Morbius and Madame Web that are often considered some of the worst comic book movies in recent years. Given that I warmed up to the Venom movies and found them entertainingly bad, I was hopeful that this would be in the same symbiote-covered boat as those films and they’re technically the best movies to come out of Sony’s SMU. 

            Yes, this is infinitely better than Morbius and Madame Web…but in terms of capturing the stupid fun trash I enjoyed from the previous films, Venom: The Last Dance is a surprisingly dull sendoff for these characters. It did not join the Venom 1 and 2 club, but rather the Crow reboot and Joker 2 club as a comic book movie that left me feeling empty. 

            The film is set after the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage (and Spider-Man: No Way Home) and follows Eddie Brock/Venom (Hardy) hiding out in Mexico while on the run due to their recent battle with Carnage which resulted in the murder of police detective, Patrick Mulligan. When Eddie is named the prime suspect for Patrick’s death, he and Venom set off to New York City in an attempt to clear his name. 

However, Eddie and Venom are targeted by symbiote-hunting monsters from Venom’s home world sent by the creator of the symbiotes, Knull (Let There Be Carnage director, Andy Serkis-The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Planet of the Apes franchise, Marvel Cinematic Universe) to retrieve Eddie and Venom’s codex in order to free himself from his space prison. Not only that, but they’re also being hunted by a secret government organization located underneath the soon-to-be-decommissioned Area 51 that also houses various symbiotes from when the meteor crashed back in the first film under the command of Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor-12 Years a Slave, The Martian, Doctor Strange 1 and 2). 

Now, Eddie and Venom are forced to make a devastating decision in order to save their home and put an end to Knull’s wrath in a glorious last dance. 

The film also stars Juno Temple (Atonement, The Dark Knight Rises, Ted Lasso) as Dr. Teddy Payne, Rhys Ifans (The King’s Man, House of the Dragon, Nyad); who previously portrayed The Lizard in The Amazing Spider-Man as Martin Moon, Peggy Lu (Kung Pow: Enter the Fist, Always Be My Maybe) reprising her role as convenience store owner Mrs. Chen, Clark Backo (Seven in Heaven, I Want You Back, The Changeling) as Sadie Christmas, and Alanna Ubach (Legally Blonde 1 and 2, Waiting…, Bombshell) as Nova Moon. 

Overall, Venom: The Last Dance isn’t without its moments of enjoyment and Tom Hardy still gives his all, but this is a bland, unremarkable third entry that lacks much of the cheesy fun and hilarious awfulness of its predecessors. I’m not even going to bother complaining about how the movie once again misses the point of the character, but as someone who was ready to have a good time and laugh at how stupid this movie is, it left me very disappointed. 

Venom: Let There Be Carnage is a horribly edited and paced movie, but it felt there was some actual weight to what was going on there. Here, it’s just a whole lot of nothing with bleak cinematography, random side characters with barely any development, generic CGI action, much less Eddie and Venom chemistry, and a villain that feels very much like an afterthought.  

In terms of the film’s context when Eddie and Venom fully transform, they get detected by Knull’s monsters because of their codex that can only be destroyed if one of them dies. Because of that, there really isn’t much Eddie and Venom banter this time around and Venom in his full form isn’t onscreen for that long except for the beginning, climax, and pointless dance scene with Mrs. Chen. 

I know very little about Knull and despite having a damn fine actor playing him with Andy Serkis, the character is completely wasted and leaves no impression to the point where you often forget he’s even in the film. The Venommovies don’t exactly have amazing villains, but Riz Ahmed’s Riot and Woody Harrelson’s Carnage at least brought this charismatic energy to these characters to make them somewhat memorable, not the case with Knull sadly. 

The action isn’t all that spectacular, but there are times where the Venom symbiote is used in creative ways during some of them particularly a fight scene in the beginning of the movie involving a bunch of criminals running a dog fighting operation that’s pretty great. I wish I could say the same about the climax involving multiple symbiotes, but it was so dark and poorly lit that I couldn’t make many of them out. 

There are times where the film retains some of the goofiness from its predecessors like a scene at the beginning where Venom is mixing drinks in a bar set to Tequila and Tom Hardy’s physical performance when being controlled by Venom is still great. It’s a shame there isn’t much Eddie and Venom banter this time because their chemistry in the earlier films was very strong albeit comical at the same time and there are a few laughs to be had here. 

The bit where Eddie and Venom get picked up by a family of hippies is funny and even wholesome at times plus Rhys Ifans is a standout as the dad. But they also overstay their welcome and appear in the movie for far too long as it goes on. 

Aside from a few interesting ideas, Venom: The Last Dance is an empty finale for the Tom Hardy Venom trilogy that’s far from the worst film in the Sony Spider-Man Universe. But with its sluggish pacing and sloppy execution, it just makes you wish the symbiote would find its way to Tom Holland already.