If cinematic misfires had a hall of fame, Venom: The Last Dance would not only be inducted but given a prominent display for sheer ineptitude. This supposed final chapter for Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock and Venom is more than just a letdown; it’s an affront to anyone who has ever enjoyed a movie. To simply label it as “bad” is an act of unwarranted generosity. What we have here is a film so confused, so murky, and so utterly devoid of joy that it fails to clear even the most subterranean of expectations.
The initial setup of Eddie and Venom becoming fugitives, pursued by forces from multiple realms, held a glimmer of potential for thrilling action. Regrettably, this promise dissolves into a poorly constructed and bafflingly written ordeal. The film devolves into a sequence of disconnected scenes and plot inconsistencies so glaring they could eclipse galaxies. The narrative progression, if it can be dignified with such a term, is akin to a disoriented individual stumbling aimlessly. Logic and coherence are absent; events unfold with no discernible rationale. It’s as if the screenwriters threw together every underdeveloped notion they could conjure, naively hoping audiences wouldn’t notice the fundamental lack of sense in the resulting concoction.
The central “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 trick designed to elicit an emotional response from the audience. This attempt, however, backfires spectacularly. By the time this supposed emotional crux arrives, viewers are likely to be too numb from enduring a relentless barrage of 90 minutes of nonsensical garbage to muster any semblance of care.
Eddie Brock, who once possessed a degree of complexity and internal conflict as an anti-hero rooted in the comic books, is diminished to a pathetic caricature of his former self. Hardy portrays him as a mumbling, bumbling figure, seemingly desperate to simply get through the filming process.
The supporting characters manage to sink even lower, achieving a nadir of cinematic worthlessness. It defies comprehension who believed it was a sound creative choice to populate the film with one-dimensional, cardboard cutout characters that viewers have no investment in. These characters serve absolutely no discernible narrative purpose, existing solely to occupy screen time and serve as constant reminders of the sheer lack of quality in the script.
Of course, a Venom movie is anticipated to deliver extravagant, CGI-fueled battles, right? Yet, even in this department, Venom: The Last Dance spectacularly underdelivers. The action sequences are so shoddily executed and evidently truncated for budgetary reasons that even those with the most minimal expectations for mindless entertainment will emerge from the cinema feeling cheated. The special effects are a visually painful blur of murky, indistinguishable forms colliding haphazardly, utterly devoid of tension or any spark of imaginative flair.
The climactic showdown is presented as an incomprehensible vortex of chaos, ostensibly intended to distract from the stark reality that nothing of consequence is actually transpiring. It is neither thrilling nor entertaining; it is simply an eyesore.
Ostensibly, the film attempts to masquerade as a poignant, emotionally resonant farewell to the symbiotic bond between Eddie and Venom. However, it falls laughably short of achieving this. Any aspiration toward emotional depth is immediately negated by the film’s jarringly uneven pacing and a complete vacuum of character development. The supposedly “devastating” decision feels unearned, contrived, and utterly devoid of conviction. There is no sense of resolution, no gratifying payoff – only a hollow, vapid conclusion that leaves one questioning the expenditure of time and money.
Steer clear of this movie as if it were the symbiote plague itself. Eddie and Venom deserved a far better send-off. Audiences universally deserved better.
The behind-the-scenes machinations, with whispers of Tom Hardy’s ego and the promotion of his friend to director (who co-wrote the script), strongly suggest a lack of genuine care for the franchise. Hardy’s influence in injecting a comedic tone into the first film reportedly led to clashes with director Ruben Fleischer, causing filming disruptions. Intriguingly, the director of Venom: The Last Dance was also a writer on the first movie and allegedly pushed for the tonal shift towards comedy, overriding initial plans for a darker, sci-fi horror approach evident in early trailers. Even Fleischer has expressed regret over these changes, highlighting a potential case of directorial hijacking driven by personal connections and star influence.
