THE PREMISE:

"Eddie and Venom, on the run, face pursuit from both worlds. As circumstances tighten, they're compelled to make a heart-wrenching choice that could mark the end of their symbiotic partnership." 

OUR MOVIE REVIEW:

Venom is a franchise I feel I’m alone in thinking is just a ton of fun, transporting the audience back to the days pre-MCU where Marvel threw anything at the wall to see if it would stick. The Venom films are what they are due to the incredible dedication of Tom Hardy in the dual role as Eddie Brock and the titular Venom. 

With Venom: The Last Dance, we are provided a conclusion that simulates yet another adventure with these two but as a finale… it fails to generate a longing for more. Hardy is as great as ever, never missing a beat as this disheveled individual on the run from authorities due to the circumstances of the second film. His relationship with his internal buddy is phenomenal and this truly is the Venom/Eddie show, however outside of them things are stitched together haphazardly. 

Want a cameo from Mrs. Chen? No, you don’t… but you’re getting it. Want Karl Mondo (Doctor Strange) and Curt Connors (The Amazing Spider-Man) to reprise their roles in a Multiverse effort with Sony? Well… you’ve got the actors. The film disregards everything the MCU has done for the never mentioned web-swinger, which is fine if they had never merged into the MCU at the end of Let There Be Carnage. 

Juno Temple is a wasted performance after her excellent stint on Ted Lasso and Fargo, Chiwetel Ejiofor has notes of a decent villain but never finds his stride, and you can tell things are bad when the most fascinating part of the story is when Tom Hardy’s Eddie encounters a family of alien seekers (including Rhys Ifans). The Last Dance is full of opportunity, yet a majority of them severely fail. 

The film is a lot of fun but it’s also incredibly amateurish from a storytelling perspective. A film that feels straight out of the early 00s and for that nostalgia dose, this new Venom delivers. The plot plays it loose, essentially only having a start and finish with a bunch of nonsensical filler in between. Happenstance after happenstance causes Venom and Eddie to fight one on one alongside fellow Symbiotes inside the confines of Area 51. 

While not supplying a satisfying conclusion for Tom Hardy’s run in the Venom universe, it’s sufficient enough as just another sequel. Hardy is terrific and his partnership with himself is just phenomenal to watch play out for yet another movie that understands just how ridiculous it can be. When the carnage is let out and chaos takes over with a buddy-comedy adventure mixed in, Venom: The Last Dance rivals the other two in the series. However, unlike the last two films, this one doesn’t quite know how to properly blend the outrageousness of it all and an unwelcome seriousness. Even though it is advertised as Hardy’s final go… I have a strong feeling that he’ll return sooner rather than later.