Venom: The Last Dance Film Review

Tom Hardy continues to be having the time of his life in Venom: The Last Dance, even if the movie around him is bland.

Eddie (Tom Hardy, The Bikeriders) and Venom are on the run after being framed for murder. The law is not the only one chasing after them, though. Creatures from Venom’s world take a sudden interest in the special bond Eddie and Venom share, which might just be the key to liberate Knull, creator of the symbiotes. Hunted by both of their worlds, the duo is forced into a devastating decision that will bring the curtains down on Venom and Eddie’s last dance.

Venom made it very clear back in 2018 that these movies were trying to emulate comic book adaptations from the 90s and early 2000s. They weren’t interested in reinventing the characters or challenging moviegoers; they were an excuse for Hardy to do three stooges routines by himself. Evidently, this approach worked well enough for people to keep coming back to this franchise. I don’t find the films to be of good quality, but I’d be lying if I said they weren’t entertaining to watch. That formula is no different with Venom: The Last Dance, and it works, until it doesn’t.

Quite early on, we’re introduced to the idea that, when both Eddie and Venom merge their bodies, it exposes them to the creatures hunting them like a loud alarm. So, the movie avoids having these two come together for a majority of its runtime. It’s a weird choice: because one might think the studio did this to cut costs, but that can’t be the case, as the film has a variety of creatures and other symbiote characters in the third act. Still, as a result of this choice, we’re left with a movie whose main appeal – Eddie and Venom doing cool things – is not as prominent as you’d wish it was for a trilogy closer.

Venom: The Last Dance does not do itself any favors by constantly cutting away from Eddie’s whereabouts to spend time with Juno Temple (Ted Lasso) and Chiwetel Ejiofor’s (The Life of Chuck) characters. Temple plays a scientist with an uninteresting tragic backstory; Ejiofor is just your generic military general. Not only do they lack personality, but all their characters do is provide exposition that we, the audience, have already learned through Venom. So, their roles feel redundant and a waste of the actors’ talents.

Where Venom: The Last Dance shines is through its bizarre comedy. We might not get a lot of Eddie morphing with Venom, but there is a lot of Venom morphing with a fish, frog, and a horse. Those moments don’t last long, but they do inject a much needed energy to the movie. Since the film is technically a road trip flick, Eddie eventually encounters a family of nomads who are traveling to area 51 in hopes of coming across an alien. As you can imagine, this leads to some great bits in the film’s climax. Rhys Ifans (House of the Dragon) and Alanna Ubach (Ted), who play the parents of the family, both understand the kind of ridiculous movie they’re in. They make cringe worthy lines into jokes that genuinely work. Their subplot feels disconnected from everything else going on, but, besides Hardy, they’re the only ones having fun with the material they’re given.

There is not much to be discussed with Venom: The Last Dance. I don’t necessarily mean that as an insult to the final product. The third installment is about as good as the previous two entries in the franchise; it’s as generic as the first one, and as cartoony as the second. Venom: The Last Dance is not good, but I had a blast watching it. The bromance between Eddie and Venom is still charming, the effects are silly, and there is an ABBA dance number for seemingly no reason other than ‘why not?’. I don’t see how you won’t have a good time seeing this in theaters if you enjoyed the last two.

Venom: The Last Dance will be released globally in theaters on October 25, 2024.