Venom: The Last Dance [Review]
Venom’s lackluster third outing is best forgotten.
Venom: The Last Dance. Credit: Columbia Pictures
Venom: The Last Dance, (hopefully) the last movie in Tom Hardy’s series of Venom films, is a disjointed mess that barely feels like a movie. Tom Hardy’s charm as Eddie Brock/Venom can’t save screenwriter Kelly Marcel’s directorial debut.
The film opens in a dark hellscape, where the trapped ultra-powerful villain Knull, imprisoned creator of the symbiotes, wants to break free. He sends his terrifying alien Xenophages to hunt down the symbiotes and find the one who holds the key to his freedom—the “Codex,” a MacGuffin conveniently lodged inside Venom’s spine. Meanwhile, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is in Mexico, where he ended up in the last film. He discovers that he’s wanted for the murder of Detective Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) and decides he should travel to New York to hide. Venom hits the road, hunted by black ops soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and a terrifying Xenophage.
Venom: The Last Dance. Credit: Columbia Pictures
Having the story start with Venom in Mexico, from the end of the last film, forces us into a road movie, as now it needs to be primarily concerned with getting him to where the action will actually take place. Venom is at his best when his two personalities are in an odd couple buddy comedy, which could have worked well in a road comedy. However, The Last Dance doesn’t succeed as either a road film or an action movie, as these elements feel separate and disconnected. The first two acts feel disjointed and directionless; things finally come together in the action-packed third act, which isn’t enough to carry the film.
The movie has no villain with any weight; Knull is a non-entity who appears in the opening and closing, never interacting with other characters, and the Xenophage is a mindless killing machine. Ejiofor’s Rex Strickland and friendly symbiote lab scientist Dr. Payne (Juno Temple) are just plot devices; Strickland isn’t developed as a character at all, while Payne’s backstory scenes barely register. Had these characters not appeared until the final act, it would have made no difference to the movie. Perhaps it would have flowed better. Rhys Ifans plays an aging hippie and patriarch of a family that gives Eddie Brock a ride to Las Vegas. His appearance in the film and his family’s scenes with Eddie are a highlight; unfortunately, they only exist to show up again near the movie's end as people who need to be rescued, more characters that only serve as plot devices.
Venom: The Last Dance. Credit: Columbia Pictures
The special effects in Venom: The Last Dance are decent, for the most part. We get to see more symbiotes in action, each with their own designs and qualities. Venom looks good, except in an out-of-place dance sequence where he seems plastic and uncanny on the screen. Hardy’s physical performance around his Venom digital effects is excellent.
Ultimately, the movie plays out like an excuse to introduce Knull and perhaps a couple of other symbiotes, despite none being on screen long enough to make an impression. The film’s plot is forgettable, and Eddie Brock and everyone around him lack substantial character development. It's all-around a disappointment. I’d expect it to appear on streaming platforms within a month or two.
Venom: The Last Dance opens in theaters on Friday, October 23, 2024.
