Review – Venom: The Last Dance

Content Guide

Violence/Scary Images: Four criminals are decapitated. An alien eats people and spews their blood. General combative violence in large fight scenes is common, often featuring blood and broken bones.

Language/Crude Humor: Multiple uses of just about every common curse word, as well as one “f-bomb”.

Drug/Alcohol References: Eddie is drunk at a bar; Venom mixes a drink. Eddie fights a drunk man outside a casino. Light drinking throughout.

Sexual Content: None.

Spiritual Content: Light references to fictional spirituality.

Other Negative Content: None.

Positive Content: Themes of redemption and dedicated friendship are present throughout. Sacrificial love is emphasized.

Review

Venom: The Last Dance is the last movie in what may be one of the weirdest trilogies to ever meet the mainstream. 

With three different directors, a handful of scattered writers (including Tom Hardy, the lead actor), and one main character who seems different in each subsequent release, the “Venom” trilogy has not one movie within it with a majority-positive reaction.

In other words, for all three movies, critics have been at best split on them, and at worst, in agreement on the negative.

Going into the third and (hopefully) final film, there was a sense of renewed hope that maybe this one would be different. They’ve test-driven the symbiotic setup between Eddie Brock (Hardy) and his begrudgingly befriended alien life form two times prior, surely they’d have learned a lesson or two by now.

Unfortunately, no, they have not. It isn’t that this is a bad movie; there’s actually quite a lot of fun to be had. But just like the previous two efforts, the screenplay is about as thin as the fabric it’s shown on, and for those familiar with the character on a deeper level, this adaptation leaves a lot to be desired yet again.

In this final film, Eddie and Venom are on the run after a misunderstanding puts them in the crosshairs of a militant organization set on securing every symbiote on the planet. On top of that, they’re being chased by a big alien monster who also wants Venom, only it’d prefer to take him out, as opposed to rehoming him to an underground lab.

The latter threat ties back to Knull, a new, otherworldly villain who, despite his potential and visual fear-factor, serves as little more than eye candy here. Really, that’s what most of this story is about. It’s like the producers asked: “How do we get as many aliens, explosions and bright colors on the screen at one time?” That sounds fun… but when it’s all mushed together at once, devoid of context and lazily unnecessary, it does little more than induce a headache.

What does work in this one, as it always has, is the chemistry between Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. It’s made even better here by them being on the road together, giving the film a buddy cop-like feel as they skip from town to town with bogeys tailing them the entire way.

The humor, both organic and accidental, works to help you forget the mishaps and let your guard down a little as the runtime trudges on. The sub-two hour runtime does wonders for immersion and pacing too.

But in the end, and especially the final act, you won’t be able to shake the feeling that there just isn’t enough to suffice here. Not in the story, on the screen or even in the budget.

Venom: The Last Dance looks, feels and plays below par. There’s some fun to be had with it, especially if you like the titular character, but expecting any more than a weightless rollercoaster ride will lead to you being let down.

Take it or leave it, at least this one underperforming (so far) means there’s a chance the folks at Sony start to wonder why these movies aren’t all that well-liked. It’s time to stop spending so much money on overbearing special effects, invest in a mirror and reflect on their continued misunderstanding of the audience these films are supposedly made for.

that does no more than it absolutely must; take it or leave it, it probably won’t matter in a few years time either way.