Movie reviews often demand a catchy opening line to capture the essence of the film. For Venom: The Last Dance, the concluding chapter in this unlikely franchise, the sentiment is unavoidable: this movie is an embarrassingly clumsy finish, and nothing can salvage The Last Dance from being a disappointment.
Full disclosure: the Venom films have never been critical darlings. Setting aside the oddity of Sony developing a Spider-Man-adjacent character without Spider-Man himself, largely to retain character rights, 2018’s Venom was a passable, early 2000s-esque comic book movie. Its 2021 sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, however, was a frustrating example of squandered source material and questionable creative choices. Both films were buoyed by Tom Hardy’s committed, unrestrained performance as both journalist Eddie Brock and the Venom symbiote. In The Last Dance, this energy is conspicuously absent. Hardy appears visibly weary, causing gags to land with a thud, and the quirky charm of Eddie and Venom’s dynamic now feels grating and childish.
As the supposed grand finale for this on-screen iteration of the character (pending future studio decisions), The Last Dance is notably underwhelming. Hardy’s apparent fatigue might stem from the impression that he was filming several different movies simultaneously. It feels like an extreme case of “we’ll fix it in post!”, where the seams are glaringly obvious.
Writer-director Kelly Marcel, also responsible for Let There Be Carnage and making her directorial debut here, seems to cram an excessive amount of plot into a single film, with jarringly abrupt editing choices. Minor characters with minimal prior dialogue are thrust into pivotal roles in the finale, with Marcel struggling to make the audience care about their fates. Other characters are hinted at being significant, only to fade into insignificance. One unnamed character’s identity, revealed in the credits, is a returning figure from previous films with a dramatically altered backstory, completely unaddressed within this movie. The film feels disjointed, as if held together by sheer willpower and hope.
Venom and Eddie Brock looking distressed, with chaotic visual effects in the background, hinting at the movie's turbulent plot.
Direction and Plot: A Patchwork Mess
The convoluted plot of Venom: The Last Dance kicks off in the opening scene with the introduction of Knull, an ancient dark god who spawned Venom’s symbiote race, only to be imprisoned by them on a remote, stormy planet. Unbeknownst to them, they carry the key to his liberation within themselves. This key, inadvertently activated by Eddie/Venom in the previous film, prompts Knull to dispatch his new minions, the Xenophages, to retrieve it. This exposition is delivered directly to the audience by Knull himself, in the first of many awkwardly placed explanatory dialogues. Prepare for scenes where military personnel and scientists, supposedly long-time colleagues, inexplicably detail their entire professional histories to each other.
Fans anticipating a grand showcase of Knull, the “King in Black,” should significantly lower their expectations. Forget any crossover rumors you might have encountered; they are nowhere to be found here.
Supporting Cast and Wasted Potential
Among the military and scientific figures are Chiwetel Ejiofor’s General Strickland, a bombastic military liaison for a clandestine division tasked with capturing all symbiotes on Earth, and Juno Temple’s Dr. Teddy Payne, a morally ambiguous scientist leading the study of these alien entities. Both are vying to capture Venom for their own purposes. Meanwhile, Eddie and Venom are on a road trip from Mexico to New York, fugitives attempting to clear Eddie’s name after being wrongly implicated in the death of a police detective infected by Carnage in the previous movie. Their journey intersects with Rhys Ifans’s Martin Moon, a hippie traveling cross-country with his family to Area 51, pursuing his lifelong dream of witnessing an alien encounter.
Venom snarling aggressively, showcasing the movie's attempt at darker, more intense moments, despite its overall lighter tone.
Pacing and Plot Holes
Venom: The Last Dance also throws in a multitude of new symbiotes, dance sequences, a Venom-horse hybrid, a slightly altered version of the Spider-Man: No Way Home post-credit scene, and much more. It’s undeniably overloaded. Marcel’s inconsistent pacing exacerbates the issue, with rushed key plot points interspersed with protracted, unnecessary scenes. An extended family sing-along set to David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” exemplifies this. While arguably the most emotionally resonant moment as Eddie reflects on the normalcy he’s sacrificed, it disrupts the film’s momentum. Conversely, the third act features a reasonably well-executed battle sequence that may please hardcore Venom comic fans.
These sporadic enjoyable moments are scattered throughout The Last Dance, but they only emphasize the film’s overall clumsiness. One doesn’t need to reach CinemaSins levels of scrutiny to notice glaring plot holes and character inconsistencies. While the cast, barring moments of Hardy’s apparent disengagement, isn’t inherently poor, they are hampered by weak material, or, as with Ifans’s character arc, seem misplaced in this particular film. When Marcel attempts an emotionally charged scene intended to encapsulate Eddie and Venom’s journey thus far, set to the saccharine Maroon 5 track “Memories,” it feels so forced and insincere that it borders on comedic. Ironically, it might be the biggest laugh in the movie’s 100-plus-minute runtime.
Eddie Brock and Venom in a car, engaging in their typical banter, highlighting the strained humor in "Venom: The Last Dance".
Tom Hardy’s Tired Performance
Initially, expectations for Venom: The Last Dance were low, simply hoping it would surpass the dismal bar set by Let There Be Carnage. Upon leaving the theater, there was a fleeting sense that it might have just cleared that minimal hurdle. However, further reflection reveals that this franchise finale is an even grander misstep. This is reflected in its box office performance, marking the lowest opening in the trilogy by a significant margin. Coupled with the creative and commercial failures of Morbius and Madame Web, and the uninspiring anticipation for Kraven the Hunter, and a lack of announced future projects, this could signal the beginning of the end for Sony’s Spider-Man-less Spider-Man universe.
Venom: The Last Dance, released on October 25th, is currently showing in cinemas, and unfortunately, it’s a dance best skipped.
| Venom: The Last Dance review |
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| Against all odds, Venom: The Last Dance emerges as the weakest installment in Sony’s symbiote comic book trilogy, burdened by a seemingly sleepwalking Tom Hardy and a haphazard, visibly patched-together production helmed by writer-director Kelly Marcel. A few fleeting sparks of enjoyment are insufficient to rescue this film from the abyss, even with the introduction of the notorious Knull. |
