The superhero movie landscape is littered with sequels, some deserved, many not. We’ve seen franchises soar and plummet, and then there’s the curious case of Venom. A film that arguably shouldn’t have spawned a franchise in the first place has now reached its third installment: Venom: The Last Dance. For a series struggling to find its footing, is this final dance a graceful exit or another stumble?
While my personal expectations were low, a fellow critic who shares my reservations about the previous Venom movies offered a slightly more optimistic perspective after a screening. Could Venom: The Last Dance defy expectations? Sometimes, franchises unexpectedly find their stride, like Puss in Boots, which delivered its best entry with its third film. However, Venom feels more like a franchise relentlessly beaten into the ground, a point seemingly proven by this third outing.
As a Tom Hardy admirer, it pains me to say this. Hardy excels in gritty, anti-hero roles, but in the Venom universe, he feels miscast, reduced to a caricature. The humor, particularly Venom’s fondness for the word “shit,” feels juvenile and repetitive, a joke that wore thin movies ago. The comedic beats, once perhaps mildly amusing, now land with a thud after three films.
Even for a Marvel-adjacent film produced by Sony, the action in Venom: The Last Dance is surprisingly bland. It lacks any memorable sequences or genuine excitement. The action feels perfunctory, driven by a need to check boxes rather than organically arising from the narrative. It’s as if explosions and CGI spectacle are deployed every fifteen minutes to keep the audience vaguely engaged.
One particularly egregious scene involves Venom and Eddie clinging to a passenger plane mid-air. After a brief skirmish with an alien, they nonchalantly abandon the damaged aircraft, leaving hundreds of passengers to their fate. This exemplifies the film’s disconnect from any sense of consequence or logical storytelling.
Venom: The Last Dance follows the predictable motions of a Sony-produced Marvel movie. While arguably a slight improvement over the disastrous Madame Web, that’s a low bar to clear. If this is the benchmark for success, the upcoming Kraven the Hunter film should inspire considerable dread. Ultimately, Venom: The Last Dance remains firmly entrenched in mediocrity, a missed opportunity to elevate the franchise after two previous attempts.
The film’s pacing contributes to its overall forgettability. It ambles aimlessly for the majority of its runtime, only to rush into a perfunctory final act. Despite its mercifully short runtime of 109 minutes, the rushed pacing undercuts any potential for a satisfying conclusion to Eddie and Venom’s journey. It all feels like a blur, over before it truly begins.
Mirroring the flaws of the first Venom film, the villains in The Last Dance are equally uninspired. Generic and one-dimensional, they evoke the same tired tropes of megalomaniacal antagonists seeking power. While Venom: Let There Be Carnage offered a slightly more compelling villain in a symbiote-powered serial killer, The Last Dance regresses to formulaic villainy. It even borrows from the Avengers playbook, introducing universe-ending threats only to dispatch generic minions, stretching the conflict thin for a supposed finale.
Perhaps the most damning indictment of Venom: The Last Dance is its utter lack of memorability. The rushed narrative and the central relationship between Eddie and Venom are given scant moments of genuine sincerity, buried beneath layers of forced humor and gimmicks. The action sequences are generic CGI fests, and attempts at adding emotional depth through tragic backstories fall flat. The human characters are stock comic book movie archetypes, going through predictable motions.
Ultimately, Venom: The Last Dance fails to elicit any emotional investment. Worse, it doesn’t even feel like the movie itself cares. It’s a profoundly insignificant film, content to reside in the realm of “meh.” If you enjoyed the previous Venom films, you might find something to appreciate here, but for many, Venom: The Last Dance will be a mercifully brief and instantly forgettable cinematic experience.
Rated PG-13 For: intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images and strong language
Runtime: 109 minutes
After Credits Scene: Yes. It’s nothing important but yes.
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Comedy
Starring: Tom Hardy, Juno Temple, Stephen Graham, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Directed By: Kelly Marcel
Out of 10
Story: 5 / Acting: 6 / Directing: 6 / Visuals: 5.5
OVERALL: 5/10
Buy to Own: No.
Check out the trailer below:
