Sony’s deal with adapting the works of Spider-Man characters without actually including Spider-Man appears to be ongoing despite negative reviews and poor reception of their films. This is evident with their recent effort Madame Web and again with Morbius the other year. The one film that kick-started this self-contained universe of Marvel characters, adjacent to the MCU, was Venom. Spider-Man: No Way Home may have made the waters murky a little with a cameo of Venom, potentially teasing a future cross-over, but it appears Sony and Marvel are sticking to a “Spider-Man”-less universe for their big screen cinematic universe.
Venom is the only character so far in this independent franchise to have sequels. Venom is a beloved Spider-Man villain from the comics with him essentially being his arch-nemesis and sometimes seen as an anti-hero. Ever since his first film back in 2018 we have seen this anti-hero take of the character on the big screen. Eddie Brock, played here again by the fantastic Tom Hardy, is the host to the symbiote that goes under the name Venom. Bonded together they are as one and their phrase “we are Venom” became the franchises ‘go to’ slogan. From the streets of San Francisco, to the clubs, churches and prisons in the city in the subsequent sequel, we are now travelling out of the area for the third and final film, Venom: The Last Dance.
The problem with Venom is that he doesn’t exactly have a big library of foes and enemies like Spider-Man does. He does have his enemies but we have already seen his biggest threat in the form of Carnage in the previous film. For his final film it appears the filmmakers have gone with big, big baddie Knull. In the comics he is a threat not too similar to Thanos and wields godly power and authority over the species he makes - most notably the symbiotes. Knull is introduced in this film, and there is plenty of foreshadowing for future appearances too, and he appears to be a big threat and the film uses this to anchor the film and make it part of the larger picture. Sadly the film focuses a bit too much on this aspect. A Xenophage, which is an alien creature tasked by Knull to find a bonded symbiote with its host, arrives on Earth and finds a candidate for releasing Knull from prison. The film then kicks into a cat-and-mouse chase as the Xenophage pursues Venom and Eddie over Nevada and Las Vegas.
Venom: The Last Dance is an oddity in a few different ways. The levity and grounded-ness is there, but then there is a lot of unnecessary comedy and humour that distracts heavily from the plot. A subplot involving a hippie family feels a little unneeded, and there are moments where Venom is clumsy and attracts the Xenophage by dancing with Mrs. Chen, a returning character from the previous two films. The motivations for Venom are really debatable and detracts from the overarching plot. Stephen Graham even returns as former Police Detective Mulligan, in a very limited role that only acts as exposition for another future film. All this leads to a very uneven film that often forgets to tell the story it has set out to do.
The finale of Venom: The Last Dance does pull the film together with a great action set-piece, and it does truly deliver something special for fans of the comics and the characters. To make your way through the entire film to reach this point though is a bit of a chore. It is entertaining, but it looks and feels like dumb entertainment. The previous two films were more fun and had more at stake, but at least the franchise’s uneven tone has remained consistent amongst the films.
★★☆☆☆
2/5
Final Verdict:
Venom: The Last Dance achieves what it sets out to do, which is very little. It teases a threat in a similar fashion to Thanos in the MCU with Knull, the King in Black. Tom Hardy does excel at the character of Eddie Brock and Venom and they are the highlight of the film, everything else in the film just feels like a waste. It may have more scope and potential than the previous two films but it loses its way in terms of character progression. There’s a few cool moments, but then there are several really over-the-top moments too. Whether you like it or not, you cannot deny the Venom franchise has been a rather entertaining one.
Thanks for reading today’s blog!
Alex Murray, the Head of Eyesight Productions
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