Venom: The Last Dance is Entertainingly Stupid in All the Right Ways -

By Luis Zonenberg

Two lifelong best friends have finally teamed up to tell the superhero story they always wanted to tell and no, it’s not Deadpool & Wolverine. First-time director Kelly Marcel and her bestie, actor Tom Hardy, decided to have some fun as they finally closed out the Venom trilogy. Will this be Venom’s last dance or will he fail to stay dead, like most superheroes?

Following the events of Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we see Eddie Brock and Venom (Tom Hardy) on the run from the government as they try to clear their names. At the same time, we discover that an alien army is hunting Venom as he holds the key to releasing the creator of the symbiotes, Knull (Andy Serkis). With the fate of the Earth at risk, Eddie and Venom must learn to face the music as their worlds collide.

As always, Tom Hardy clocks in and delivers another stellar performance as both Eddie Brock and Venom. While Andy Serkis doesn’t have much screen time as Knull, he still brings a terrifying presence that looms over the rest of the movie. Rhys Ifans also adds some levity as a hippie named Martin, who is traversing the highway with his family when he comes upon Eddie on his travels.

The cinematography is also pretty impressive, considering this is Kelly Marcel’s first time in the director’s chair. She clearly has a good sense of scope and scale, allowing the wide shots to linger for some unsettling moments. Some sequences even expanded to fill the ginormous IMAX screen I saw the movie on, allowing the scenes to feel much more grand and epic as the action kicked in.

Speaking of which, I should mention that this film rectifies the severe lack of action scenes that hindered the previous sequel. Instead of having Eddie and Venom bicker like an old married couple, we actually see them work together and fight criminals as if they were some sort of superhero. Mixing some good practical sets with CGI helps add some new energy to some absurdly creative fight scenes.

Unless you’re expecting a film on par with The Dark Knight, I would not go in expecting much from this story. Like the previous entries, they focus more on the action and characters instead of telling a cohesive story that drives them through it. There are some laughably stupid moments in this film as well, to the extent that they were either pointlessly added or used to merely get the characters to be where they needed to go.

This is most definitely a popcorn movie, one you should not think too much about while you’re watching it. There will be some things that don’t make sense, and there will be scenes that are so dumb that you can’t help but laugh at them. When compared to other movies, though, this one was so much more fun and by far more entertaining than most of the blockbusters that have come out this year. Carried by Tom Hardy’s stellar performance, Venom: The Last Dance is light on story and heavy on action as we close out this chapter in extreme fashion.

Rating: ★★★ of four

Spoilers:

If you thought that was it, there was so much more story to cover. We also have a subplot featuring a secret organization called the Imperium collecting symbiotes nationwide. In the midst of this, we find scientist Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) trying to protect the symbiotes while Commander Strickland (Chiwetel Echiofor) plans to eradicate them.

There is also a scene where Eddie and Venom come across a hippie family who drop them off in Las Vegas, where they randomly bump into Mrs. Chen (Peggy Lu) from the previous movies. There, Venom dances with her to Dancing Queen by ABBA while both are clearly drunk. But really, this is just so the aliens and the military can locate Venom and capture the two of them.

The real stupid highlight, though, is Payne’s backstory, which details how she got struck by lightning and acted as a conductor for it to pass to her brother as she held his hand. This was only done to explain how she could bond with the symbiote Agony and obtain lightning-based powers. But I know what you’re all thinking: what about Venom?

Well, in a surprisingly emotional climax, Venom separates from Eddie to bond with all the alien creatures called Xenophages as he dumps some acid on them, killing himself in the process. After Venom’s sacrifice, Eddie Brock is exonerated and travels to New York City, where he reminisces on his relationship with Venom. Unbeknownst to him, a broken vial containing a part of Venom is left behind as a black cockroach stands next to it in a post-credit scene.
What does this entail? To be frank, it means if this movie makes enough money, Venom will return. Whether this happens or not remains to be seen. I stand by my judgment that this movie is clearly made for fans of the previous entries and if you have a high tolerance for stupid entertainment like myself, then I can’t help but recommend this enough for you. Venom: The Last Dance is playing in theaters now so enjoy it on the biggest screen while you can.