At the height of comic book films, everyone wanted a piece of the pie, especially Sony who has held the rights to Spider-Man and his ever-expanding library of characters for over 20 years now. Sony kicked off their own little Marvel corner in 2018 with Venom, bringing Eddie Brock and the titular symbiote to live action for the first time since the days of the Raimi Trilogy. Which leads us to Venom: The Last Dance.
It seems Eddie and Venom are at the end of the line in Venom: The Last Dance – an entertaining and funny road-trip flick with yet another great double performance from Hardy, but sometimes paper-thin supporting characters and rule book thrown out the window, this isn’t just their last dance, but their most outlandish one yet.
CAN I HAVE THIS DANCE?
Inspired heavily by the work of Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman, Eddie and Venom find themselves on the run, wanted for the murder of Patrick Mulligan, a murder that they did not commit but had been framed for. Eddie and Venom find themselves setting course for New York City, with Eddie claiming he’s got someone there he can blackmail to help them. Of course, this will be no easy journey – while on the run from authorities, they’re ambushed by a Xenophage, sent by Knull from the planet Klyntar to kill Venom in hopes of freeing himself from his prison.
The Xenophages aren’t the only thing they have to worry about, as the “authorities” chasing them are next level. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Rex Strickland here, a rather new character to the Marvel world, and he’s hellbent on capturing any and all symbiotes on Earth and destroying them. Strickland leads a government task force that specializes in taking down symbiotes, armed with sonic weapons and symbiote containment equipment, Strickland and his team catch ‘em so the scientist back at the lab can test ‘em.
However, Strickland faces opposition from within his ranks. Juno Temple plays a gender-bent Thaddeus Paine, now named Teddy Paine, a NASA scientist who has become fascinated with symbiotes. Teddy is joined by another doctor played by Clark Backo who unfortunately never really has her name said and is only referred to as “Christmas” by Strickland in reference to the Christmas tree pin she wears on her lab coat. For how big of a role Backo has in the film, she seems to basically be entirely hidden in the marketing, a name for her character can’t even be found online.
MOVE OVER BATMAN AND ROBIN
Arguably the best part of the film and the franchise as a whole has been Tom Hardy’s performances as Eddie Brock. Limited to just these films, Eddie and Venom’s progressing symbiotic relationship has evolved these movies into much more of a buddy comedy franchise, with this film embracing this relationship the most.
Hardy delivers what I think could be his best turn as Brock and Venom yet, and whoever decided that he should play both roles deserves a promotion because it definitely helps with the chemistry between the two. At this point Eddie has fully embraced Venom, he doesn’t miss life without him. Yes, he still looks like he’s running a low-grade fever for the entirety of the film and also the past two films, but sometimes you just have to go through a lifestyle change and I think it’s fair to call symbiotically bonding with sentient space sludge can certainly be considered a lifestyle change.
This film probably presents the strongest relationship between them. It is revealed in the movie that on Venom’s earth, it’s only been about a year and a half that they’ve been bonded but this film strengthens their bond. The two have become best friends, and the movie really flexes its heart towards the end with some emotional moments between Eddie and Venom.
SHALLOW CHARACTERIZATION AND PLOT-DRIVEN ROLE
One glaring issue with this movie is its paperthin characters, nobody is all that changed from when the movie starts to the end, at least in either a dramatic or satisfying way, even Eddie himself doesn’t really face anything in this movie but survival. The supporting cast is fun but they’re just there to help move the plot forward and dump exposition. The film gives Paine motivations as to why she is a NASA scientist and why she cares about the symbiotes but it’s weirdly introduced and never feels satisfyingly concluded, feeling a bit open-ended.
Strickland is just your average high-ranking military general, he wants to “protect the world” and that is it, nothing else that is compelling enough to make you want to support him. He’s rational to a point and then things spiral widely out of control for him and he decides scorched earth is the best way forward. Nothing really all that thought-provoking but he was still fun to have around.
The film seemingly doesn’t care to give Christmas a real name and the only real detail about who she is, is that she wears a Christmas tree pin as stated above.
HIVE-MINDLESS
The best way to describe this movie is like that fungal disease that bugs get, where it fully takes over their nervous system but kills the bug. The movie just flies by the seat of its pants, it is completely mindless in the best way possible at times. Venom and Eddie are just spiralling through SNL sketch after SNL sketch, getting themselves into the wildest of predicaments.
Perhaps the best is when they meet Martin, Nova Moon, and their two children, played by Rhys Ifan and Alanna Ubach. The couple are a road-tripping pair of all-natural hippies on their way to Area 51 in hopes of seeing an alien before the famous military base is decommissioned, which the movie heavily focuses around and sets its third act at.
The third-act is where the rules previously established by the first film are thrown out the window. This was a third-act fight in a superhero film that I genuinely did not expect. While I did enjoy the first two acts of this movie quite a bit, nothing is really all that eventful till we get to the third act, which saves the movie from being something that could’ve just been an email. Truly batshit, mindless action that is incredibly fun to watch.
The movie just doesn’t care about any sort of rules of the universe and filmmaking in general. At times things just happen, does it make sense what is happening? No, not really. The bigger question you should be asking yourself is, am I having fun? This feels like an inevitable yes because the movie is incredibly fun, just don’t think too hard about any of it, at all…seriously.
VENOM: THE LAST DANCE…?
Will this really be the last dance between Eddie and Venom? Is this where Venom’s story ends? Before he even gets to meet Spider-Man, genuinely any of them? No? Okay, whatever. Venom: The Last Dance is a real turn-off your-brain popcorn flick, it’s got a ton of laughs and some fun characters, even if some of them are paper-thin and pretty one note, we’re having fun! And sometimes maybe that’s all that matters, were you going to a Venom movie in hopes of it inspiring your master’s thesis or something?
Venom: The Last Dance releases in movie theaters on October 25. Check out the trailer below:
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The Review
Venom: The Last Dance
Venom: The Last Dance is a real turn-off your-brain popcorn flick, it's got a ton of laughs and some fun characters, even if some of them are paper-thin and pretty one note, we’re having fun! And sometimes maybe that's all that matters, were you going to a Venom movie in hopes of it inspiring your master's thesis or something?
