If cinematic disasters had a hall of fame, Venom: The Last Dance would be inducted on the first ballot. Tom Hardy’s presumed final performance as Eddie Brock and Venom is not just a letdown; it’s an outright disservice to moviegoers. To simply label this film as “bad” would be an act of unwarranted generosity. What unfolds on screen is an incomprehensible, confused, and utterly lifeless mess that somehow manages to underperform even the most pessimistic expectations.
The initial concept of Eddie and Venom becoming fugitives in both the human and symbiote worlds held a glimmer of potential for thrilling action. Regrettably, this potential is squandered, replaced by a chaotic and poorly written ordeal of fragmented scenes and gaping plot inconsistencies that could engulf the entire Marvel multiverse. The narrative progression, if it can even be dignified with that term, stumbles forward with the elegance of someone lost and disoriented in complete darkness. There’s no discernible logic or coherence to the sequence of events. It’s as if the writers randomly pieced together every underdeveloped idea they could conjure, naively hoping that audiences wouldn’t notice the profound lack of sense in the final product.
The supposed “devastating decision” that Eddie and Venom are forced to confront feels less like a meaningful climax to their intertwined saga and more like a manipulative, shallow tactic to provoke an emotional response from the audience. However, even this manipulative attempt falls flat. By the time this crucial moment arrives, viewers are likely too drained from enduring a tedious 90 minutes of nonsensical content to summon any genuine emotional investment.
Eddie Brock, once envisioned as a multifaceted and conflicted anti-hero directly from the comic books, is diminished to a pathetic caricature of his former self. Tom Hardy, despite his dual role as both lead actor and writer, appears to merely go through the motions, mumbling and stumbling throughout the film as if his primary objective is simply to finish filming as quickly as possible. This lackluster portrayal does a disservice to both the character and Hardy’s own capabilities.
The supporting cast in Venom: The Last Dance manages to sink even lower, achieving a level of pointlessness that seems almost deliberate. It’s baffling who thought it was a sound creative decision to populate the film with cardboard cutout versions of secondary characters that audiences have never connected with. These characters, devoid of any discernible purpose, merely occupy screen time and serve as a constant, unwelcome reminder that someone actually committed this nonsensical drivel to paper.
No Venom movie would be complete without excessive CGI battles, right? Unfortunately, the action sequences presented here are so shoddily executed and abruptly cut, seemingly to minimize production costs, that even viewers who came solely for mindless entertainment will likely leave feeling cheated. The special effects become an agonizing blur of murky, indistinguishable shapes colliding with each other, utterly devoid of any sense of suspense or imaginative choreography. The climactic fight is simply an unintelligible whirlwind of chaos, presumably intended to distract from the glaring absence of any significant narrative development. It’s neither thrilling nor entertaining—just visually unpleasant.
At its core, Venom: The Last Dance attempts to market itself as a poignant and emotionally resonant farewell to the unique bond between Eddie and Venom. However, it falls drastically short of achieving this. Any aspiration towards genuine emotional depth is immediately overwhelmed by the film’s clumsy pacing and a complete void of meaningful character progression. The supposedly “devastating” decision lacks impact, feeling artificial, forced, and utterly unconvincing. There is no sense of resolution, no satisfying culmination—only a hollow, empty finale that leaves you questioning the use of your time.
Steer clear of this movie as if it were the very symbiote plague it depicts. Both Eddie and Venom, and indeed audiences everywhere, deserved far better than Venom: The Last Dance. The blame perhaps lies in inflated egos and nepotism, with the director, a close friend of Tom Hardy, sharing sole writing credit. This decision hints at a potential disregard for the franchise itself. It’s rumored that Hardy’s influence on the first film pushed it towards a more comedic tone, causing friction on set and script rewrites. Examining the initial trailers for the first Venom film reveals a darker, sci-fi horror leaning that was ultimately sacrificed for the quippy, gag-laden final product.
