So there’s this alien symbiote, see, who makes its way to Earth and ends up being studied alongside several other specimens in a lab. A muckraking reporter named Eddie Brock is trying to expose the corporation that’s using human subjects to test what these extraterrestrials are capable of, and long story short, the symbiote bonds with him. Together, they form a hybrid creature commonly known as Venom. Likes include chocolate, causing chaos, licking its chops with a long reptilian tongue, making Eddie’s non-Venom life hell, and eating scrumptious human brains. Dislikes include rudeness, evil symbiotes and sonic blasts.
In the comics, Venom was one of Spider-Man‘s biggest villains (ditto the character’s first appearance in the movies, courtesy of Topher Grace and Spider-Man 3). In Sony’s Spiderverse spin-off series, he’s an antihero who balances doing the right thing with his constant desire to chomp heads. In the eyes of Tom Hardy‘s accountant, the fan favorite with the mouth full of CGI fangs is a way to ensure the star’s mortgages will be paid off in a timely manner. Not that the always-intense actor doesn’t fully commit to the bit in the Venom movies, or that he’s not personally invested; Hardy has co-writing credits on both 2021’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage and the third and likely final entry, Venom: The Last Dance, with Kelly Marcel. The two go way back — they co-founded the Bad Dog Theater Company in London in 2010, eight years before the first sub-franchise entry — and Marcel is making her directorial debut with this trilogy-ender. As far as corporate products go, it’s practically a family affair.
So why does this Last Dance feel so impersonal, so rote, so step-by-step predictable? Yes, the previous movies have stuck to a fairly typical template: Hardy’s Brock is a reluctant host (though he’s got physical-comedy chops), the digitally rendered Venom demands the most violent response to whatever situation they encounter, an even more dangerous alien-fueled threat must be vanquished and thus, a détente between man and his symbiote bestie is reached. Sometimes things get extra-squirmy, other times they blow up. Wisecracks are uttered. Longtime supporting character Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) rolls her eyes.
That’s all here, along with a sentimental streak that represents something of an arc for what’s now a three-movie, two-character, one-body bromance. But all of the elements surrounding this long goodbye feel like spare parts grafted onto a dark-superhero-story chassis. The big bad in this chapter is a “slicer of worlds” named Knull, who’s been imprisoned by the otherworldly race of symbiotes and looks as if he might have wandered off the set of Thor: The Dark World. (This is not a compliment.) The MacGuffin that causes Knull’s generic, interstellar cockroach minions to hunt down Venom/Brock on Earth is a lifeforce-slash-tracking-device known as the Codex. Scientists equal allies. Gung-ho military types equals enemies. The locale for most of the action? Area 51, because aliens. Are we yawning yet?
As for the promise of a possible Spider-Man team-up and/or showdown, like the one dangled in both the mid-credit kickers of both Let There Be Carnage and Spider-Man: No Way Home, well, that’s ixnayed early on. The Last Dance repeats the latter’s crossover tease, in which Brock, unexpectedly whisked over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s version of Mexico, tries to get his head around a world filled with superheroes and “a purple alien obsessed with stones” while a bartender (Ted Lasso‘s Cristo Fenandez) looks on in shock. Then boom, Brock and his symbiote are whisked right back to their world with little to no fanfare. “I’m so over all of this multiverse shit,” booms the basso profundo alien voice in Eddie’s head. For once, we’re in complete agreement with you, Mr. Venom.
Soon, those cockroaches are chasing after our hero(es), a general (Chiwetel Ejiofor) with an ax to grind brings the duo back to Area 51’s top secret lab, a biologist (Juno Temple) with a ridiculously traumatic backstory talks about needing to study the symbiotes, and a hippiesh family led by a “the truth is out there” believer (Rhys Ifans) become innocents in need of saving. A few brawls happen on the hull of a flying plane, in a hotel suite in Vegas and underwater in a river. Every so often, the movie throws in an oddball novelty, a quirky touch or ludicrous tangent designed for laughs. If you’ve ever been curious what a symbiote/horse mash-up looks like, wanted to watch Venom dance to “Dancing Queen” or listened to Venom sing-along to “Space Oddity,” this movie has your back.
Venom in ‘Venom: The Last Dance.’
Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Because of the Marvel-based characters, the Venom movies are technically superhero films, and the good-vs.-bad — or as often the case in this trilogy, the bad-vs.-the-worse — battle royales play out with all of the splash-page spectacle you’d expect. What they really are at their foundation, however, are buddy comedies, and the way that Hardy turns the slapstick bits and the hapless-ego-meets the raging-id banter (he’s increasingly taken on voice duties for Venom as the series has progressed, and his Bane-with-head-cold exclamations remain a highlight here) into a comic showcase is a big part of the appeal. He’s the reason that you believe there is a bond between Brock and the unsolicited passenger riding shotgun in his body.
And if fans have gravitated toward that one aspect, which is translated successfully from the comics, then they’ll probably be happy with the respectful conclusion to this trilogy. The Last Dance goes out with neither a bang nor a whimper, simply a farewell. (Hardy has says he’s done with the Venom movies but is not opposed to a Spider-Man match-up, so the title may possibly be premature.) We have no idea whether a best-in-show montage set to Maroon 5’s “Memories” is supposed to be long-alien-tongue-in-cheek or not, to be honest. But it does pay tribute to those who’ve loyally stuck with this particular superhero-cinema sidebar by saving one final waltz just for them.